WEST LAFAYETTE – In the first test of a Purdue mandate that students must get a coronavirus test – and test negative – before starting classes, officials said that of the 600 freshmen in West Lafayette a “very, very low number” tested positive since arriving for classes that started Monday.
How many qualifies as “very, very low,” David Broecker, the Protect Purdue Implementation Team leader, wasn’t saying Tuesday during a town hall forum about preparations to reopen the West Lafayette campus in August for the fall 2020 semester.
Broecker said the teams on campus were “obviously scrambling a bit” to get the testing in place in time for the Summer Start and Early Start students to start arriving at residence halls July 9, after the university announced the mandatory testing on July 8.
That scrambling includes what data to share about testing results, said Dr. Esteban Ramirez, chief medical officer at the Protect Purdue Health Center.
Ramirez said Purdue had concerns about medical privacy, given the relatively small sample on campus in the past week. But he said that should change once larger-scale testing window starts Aug. 1 – both in what he called brick-and-mortar sites on campus and with testing kits sent to students’ homes – before classes start Aug. 24 for more than 40,000 students.
More: Purdue brings first students back for summer ‘preview’ of a reopened campus, not revealing COVID-19 results
Ramirez said he expected Purdue to release information about those results by the middle- to late-August. He said Purdue was working with hospitals and the state and county health departments about what information to include.
“We’re still working on the right way to put that information out,” Ramirez said. “We’re looking at having something like a dashboard available online so that information can be viewed on a frequent basis for the campus.”
Ramirez talked with the J&C this week about what the initial testing on campus showed and what the university expects out of the largest-scale testing, yet, in Greater Lafayette.
No numbers now, but what are Purdue’s expectations?
Ramirez said Purdue was eager to see the results coming from tests of all students – including those showing no COVID-19 symptoms – but that the university “didn’t set any hard numbers on what that would look like.”
Ramirez said the Protect Purdue Plan – including space for quarantine and self-isolation for those who test positive – was built on infection rates showing up in Tippecanoe County and the rest of the state.
In Tippecanoe County, with 802 confirmed cases as of Wednesday, had a 5.4 percent rate of the 14,887 people tested. That was lower than Indiana’s rate of 9.1 percent.
Ramirez said he was expecting a confirmed case rate somewhere in a range between the county’s and state’s figures.
More: How will Purdue reopen in the fall? Here’s the Protect Purdue Plan
“Students coming from states where there's a higher percentage rate, and so that's going to fluctuate some,” Ramirez said. “We are looking at sort of that 5 (percent) to 10 percent rate as a potential of what we need to think about and accommodate for.”
What will that mean when all students – at 44,000 in fall 2019, close to triple the number of people who have taken COVID-19 tests in Tippecanoe County since March – are all tested?
The range would mean 2,300 to 4,000 confirmed cases.
“No,” Ramirez said, “we're not going to be able to get zero infection rates. But we are going to be able to hopefully handle that in a much quicker way and prevent spread, because we were quick to test and quick to be able to affect the way that they're out in the community.”
Did the first round of students come within or below that 5.4 percent to 9.1 percent range?
“I'm not ready to report those numbers just yet,” Ramirez said.
Were there trends Purdue saw in the first round of tests that would make Purdue rethink pieces of its reopening plan?
“Actually, right now, we're following the protocols that are set and it's working well,” Ramirez said. “There haven't been any surprises where we needed to change course on something.”
Ramirez said things could change as Purdue deals with more than 60 times as many tests, including how to get a quick turnaround on results. He said the university was looking to contract help to supplement testing being done since the spring at the Purdue Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab on campus.
“We want this to be something that we can use to change our approach if we need to,” Ramirez said. “And with ever-changing scientific literature, we're trying to stay nimble and agile with all that information and try to respond appropriately to it and use our own personal data, because what might be happening in Florida might not be what's really happening here in Purdue.”
How about once a student tests negative?
Ramirez warned about complacency on campus, given that the vast majority will have negative test results.
“I think something that I want faculty, staff and students to keep in mind is that a lot of people will have the sigh of relief when they test negative,” Ramirez said. “And that's great. … It's just a point in time test, but if you're not careful and follow through with the Protect Purdue Pledge and all of a sudden stop wearing your mask and not using good hand hygiene and not social distancing, you may turn a positive in a matter of days or weeks.”
Reach Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.
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