There are now 196 active coronavirus cases at the University of South Carolina, according to Tuesday’s COVID-19 dashboard update.
Of those cases, 193 are students and three are university employees. This is down 305 cases from Friday’s active case count of 501. There are 302 pending tests awaiting results.
For Sept. 11 to Sept. 14 – the most recent reporting period – 1,026 people were tested. This is still down from the over 2,000 the university was reaching in earlier reporting periods. It is also lower than the 1,121 tested from Sept. 8 to Sept. 10.
This comes as on-campus saliva testing recovers from its Sept. 3 shutdown. The lab was shut down after a “key lab staffer” became ill, a letter from President Bob Caslen said. Saliva testing on Davis Field restarted Sept. 8 at a reduced capacity of 200 students per day.
There were 400 people saliva tested on Monday, according to university spokesperson Jeff Stensland. This is an increase from last week, but still lower than the 600 to 1,000 tests per day that saliva testing was at before.
Quarantine and isolation housing have 18.4% of its beds in use currently, leaving 81.6% available. Bates West, the National Advocacy Center and SpringHill Suites in the Vista are all serving as quarantine/isolation locations for students.
The total percent positive rate for Sept. 11 to Sept. 14 is 7.4%.
The campus alert level is still at “low,” the second-lowest level on the alert scale. The alert level is calculated using 11 factors, including testing, case burden and quarantine/isolation capacity.
The COVID-19 dashboard will be updated every Tuesday and Friday.
This article was updated Sept. 15 at 7:48 p.m.