Despite concerns surrounding mass outbreaks at universities across the country, Cal Poly opened its campus to thousands of student residents and limited in-person classes for the fall semester, which started on Sept. 14. Things appear to be off to a decent start, but cases are trickling in and quarantines are in place on campus.
“The university is generally pleased with how fall quarter has started,” Cal Poly spokesperson Matt Lazier told
New Times, “and we appreciate that our campus community is, by and large, doing its part to help slow the spread of COVID-19 locally.”
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- TESTING Cal Poly Campus Health and Wellbeing started providing on-site testing to students on July 8, and since then, 4,385 students have been tested for COVID-19, according to data collected by the university. Twenty-one students living on campus have tested positive since then, along with 98 students living off campus.
Students hoping to live, work, or attend class on campus were required to present a negative COVID-19 test at the beginning of the quarter. Lazier said those students are now required to get tested roughly every two weeks.
Cal Poly Campus Health and Wellbeing started providing on-site testing to students on July 8, and since then, 4,385 students have been tested for COVID-19, according to
data collected by the university. Twenty-one students living on campus have tested positive since then, along with 98 students living off campus.
Eleven COVID-19-positive students are currently in isolation in on-campus housing facilities, and 15 on-campus residents who have been exposed to someone with coronavirus are in quarantine. About 135 students living on campus are currently under a quarantine-in-place order, which are used in the event of possible exposures in university housing facilities.
In the 24 hours before 1:15 p.m. on Sept. 30, 138 students were tested for COVID-19 at Campus Health and Wellbeing and just three students living off campus tested positive. No on-campus residents tested positive and no students are currently hospitalized.
The university is not providing its employees with testing, Lazier said.
“We know that COVID-19 was already in our San Luis Obispo community before fall quarter began—and that the expectation that we would see no cases on campus or among our students and employees who live off campus is simply not valid,” Lazier wrote in an email to
New Times. “But we will continue to work diligently to minimize the spread of the virus—through robust surveillance testing, quarantine and isolation measures, and ongoing focus on health and safety guidelines—working hand in hand with Public Health officials.” ∆
—Kasey Bubnash