The University of Miami confirmed more than 140 COVID cases during its first week back
The University of Miami announced Friday — four days after classes resumed Aug. 17 — that four students living in the dorms had tested positive for COVID-19, but didn’t mention that more than 130 other people had also tested positive during the first week of the fall semester.
The public found out about the additional novel coronavirus cases Monday, when the Coral Gables university released an online COVID-19 dashboard to track how the health crisis impacts UM.
“We are making decisions for the entire community, but members of the community also need to make their own decisions, and they need to make decisions based on information,” said President Julio Frenk in a press release Tuesday morning. “The worst you can do in an emergency is not communicate truthfully because that gets people much more anxious than knowing what is actually happening.”
The UM dashboard provides information for the past seven days, on a rolling basis, updating daily. The university did not provide totals from the start of the semester.
In an interview with the Herald on Tuesday, Erin Kobetz, UM’s vice provost for research who helped oversee the development of the dashboard, said experts consider a seven-day period an “ideal window by which to assess variability in infection from a public health standpoint.”
She said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate the transmission window is about 10 days, so any information gathered before that “is no longer really useful in trying to plan and implement preventative measures.”
The dashboard uses data collected from the university’s COVID-19 testing centers and contact tracing system, its Housing and Residential Life office and UHealth.
In its press release, UM encouraged community members to use the university testing centers. Kobetz said UM opened three on the Gables campus and at least another three in the Medical campus, and their average return for results is about 24 hours.
The dashboard lists the following:
- Total number of confirmed cases
- Total tests performed
- Total hospitalizations
- Total students in isolation (those who tested positive at Student Health Service in the past seven days and have been confirmed COVID-19 positive)
- Total students in quarantine (those who have potentially been exposed to COVID-19 in the past seven days and have quarantined out of an “abundance of caution”)
It also presents the information divided by day and campus, divided by faculty and staff members and students (and whether the students are residential or not).
UM dashboard for the coronavirus crisis
Here’s a breakdown of what the dashboard looked like Monday, with data from Aug. 16 to Aug. 22:
2,627 students, faculty, staff and university vendors were tested.
Of those tested, 141 people tested positive.
59 students were isolated.
98 other students were quarantined.
One faculty or staff member hospitalized.
Here’s what it showed as of Tuesday morning, with information from Aug. 17 to Aug. 23:
- 1,846 students, faculty, staff, and university vendors were tested.
- Of those tested, 96 people tested positive.
- 69 students were isolated.
- 94 other students were quarantined.
One faculty or staff member hospitalized.
Therefore, the positivity rate, calculated by dividing the number of positive confirmed cases by the number of total tests reported, is about 5%.
As of Tuesday, six faculty or staff members have tested positive — five on the Medical campus downtown and one on the Gables/Marine campus. One of them was hospitalized. It is unclear if that person is still in the hospital.
The rest — the majority of confirmed positive cases — are students.
Those have mainly been recorded on the Gables/Marine campuses (85), rather than the Medical campus (5). Within the Gables/Marine campuses, 28 residential students have tested positive, versus 57 non-residential. None of the students have been hospitalized.
What would it take to dial back the reopening?
As he wore a Canes-themed mask during his nearly nine-minute video shared on social media Monday, Frenk said, “It would have been unrealistic to assume that there would be no cases of COVID-19 this fall on our campus or anywhere else in the world.”
Then he added: “What we can accomplish if we all work together is avoiding the type of broad outbreak that would require us to shut down campus.’’
Frenk, a public health expert who served as secretary of health in Mexico, didn’t define a “broad outbreak.”
Other colleges shutting down
But Frenk did say some students are facing consequences after not complying with UM’s new security protocols, including suspensions. He didn’t provide details but UM’s student newspaper, the Miami Hurricane, reported last week videos of students partying had gone viral on social media.
Universities across Florida and around the nation have seen rising COVID cases due to college parties.
Florida State University President John Thrasher on Tuesday said he was “deeply concerned” that clusters of students were holding house parties and participating in large gatherings without wearing face masks or social distancing.
One “open house party” held on Sunday led to the arrests of seven students, Thrasher said, adding that “those students will be held accountable by law enforcement as well as face disciplinary actions by the university.”
Florida Gulf Coast University President Mike Martin announced Monday the school suspended two fraternities for throwing parties on Friday night.
“At this stage, we cannot determine whether closure will be needed for safety reasons,” Martin said. “Be assured, however, that there will be serious consequences for those who choose to exercise very poor, dangerous judgment.”
Locally, UM and Florida International University, which started classes Monday, plan to maintain on-campus activities as long as possible, to a lesser degree than usual.
An FIU spokeswoman, Maydel Santana, confirmed Tuesday the state school also plans to release its own dashboard to track confirmed COVID cases within its community.
She said it would publish it this week.
Miami Herald Staff Writer Carli Teproff contributed to this report, along with information from the News Service of Florida.
This story was originally published August 25, 2020 at 2:34 PM.
