Auburn using 67% of quarantine housing; No student COVID hospitalizations to-date

Auburn University on Tuesday updated its COVID-19 dashboard for the seven-day period covering August 22 — 28.

The university’s dashboard, which will reportedly be updated every Tuesday for the rest of the fall semester, advised that 509 students across Auburn’s campuses in Lee County tested positive for coronavirus during that latest publicized time period.

The week prior, 208 individuals on Auburn’s Lee County campuses tested positive. Those campuses include the main campus, as well as the Auburn University Airport and E.W. Shell Fisheries Center.

Neither of these subtotals include entry testing. Each student, faculty and staff member coming to campus for the fall semester was mandated to take a COVID-19 entry test; those results showed 4% of Auburn’s total student population for the fall testing positive. This equated to Auburn having 859 positives out of a total of 21,315 administered entry tests.

Numbers reflected in Tuesday’s updated dashboard includes students who either tested positive at Auburn University Medical Center or who self-reported a positive test conducted elsewhere. An Auburn University spokesperson told Yellowhammer News that students are required to self-report all positives tests to the university.

All students who are positive are also required to quarantine and isolate. This can occur in Auburn’s designated on-campus space or off-campus at an appropriate residence of a student’s choice.

While the latest capacity numbers were not released along with the dashboard information, the spokesperson informed Yellowhammer that 67% of Auburn’s quarantine/isolation housing capacity is now filled.

The university has a total of 225 quarantine/isolation beds set aside between Residence Halls L and M. This means about 74 beds are still available.

However, there is good news. The university spokesperson stated that no students have been hospitalized with COVID to-date.

?@AUMedClinic Director Fred Kam offers the latest update on #Auburn‘s latest COVID-19 positive case numbers.#AHealthierU pic.twitter.com/niE4XgLw5E

— Auburn University (@AuburnU) September 1, 2020

The latest university numbers come as the Auburn-Opelika area faces an outbreak of the virus. Adjusted for population, Auburn-Opelika has the fourth highest number of new COVID cases in the country over the past two weeks. No other Yellowhammer State locale is currently on that list.

Meanwhile, coronavirus hospitalizations at East Alabama Medical Center have fallen over recent weeks. It should be noted that hospitalizations normally trail case surges by around two weeks.

Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn