Five students, one employee who have been on campus test positive for COVID

On June 26, Pitt started posting how many students, staff and faculty who have been on the Oakland campus in the past 14 days have tested positive for COVID-19.

Currently that number stands at five students and one faculty or staff member.

The number of students on campus is still very limited.

The football team started arriving in batches on June 8 and were quarantined for two weeks prior to starting voluntary workouts, which began June 22.

There also are some students in residence halls who were unable to return home for the summer. A Pitt spokesman said approximately 50 non-student athletes have remained in University housing throughout the summer.

Student-athletes in men's basketball, women's basketball, men's soccer, women's soccer and volleyball will start to come back to campus on June 29 for a phased return to voluntary offseason activities. Athletics staff have been returning in small groups every two weeks starting June 1. The last group will come back on July 13. Pitt Athletics has produced detailed Return to Work Protocols.

Other faculty and staff are beginning to return to Oakland as research labs open. Jeremy Berg, associate senior vice chancellor for Science Strategy and Planning, Health Sciences, said two weeks ago that more than 600 labs had been reviewed for restarting in the School of Medicine alone. And on June 18, those labs that had been approved to reopen were allowed to increase capacity from one third to two thirds.

The University will be releasing information regularly about confirmed cases on the coronavirus.pitt.edu website, but will not give specific information about the individual cases.

All six of the people in the current cases are isolating in a designated campus location with medical support and oversight or at their off-campus residence until they recover, the University’s statement said.

Contact tracing is being performed for each case potentially affecting campus. Any individual who spent more than 15 minutes within 6 feet of individuals who have tested positive are notified. Individuals who are not notified by contact tracers are not considered to be at increased risk for COVID-19 based on interactions. All contacts deemed at risk of exposure will be required to self-quarantine for 14 days.

This number reflects only those current and confirmed cases the University is aware of. It does not include community members who have tested positive but have not been in campus facilities in more than 14 days and does not include past cases where patients have recovered.

— Susan Jones

 

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