More COVID-19 cases found at KU as Greek community’s positive test rate climbs to 10%
More cases of the new coronavirus continue to be found at the University of Kansas, especially among fraternity and sorority groups.
The school has conducted 21,719 tests and 474 have been positive, according to an update from the university on Friday, making the positive test rate 2.18%.
Of those infected, 270 are students in Greek life for a positive rate of 10.01% within that community.
KU reported those 270 positive results came from 2,698 tests in Greek life. On Tuesday, KU reported 133 positive tests for Greek life out of 2,433 tests.
On Wednesday, the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department issued an order placing nine chapter houses under quarantine, a move supported by Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly.
“These same kids who are in these fraternities and sororities, or mass gathering in dorms, who will be going back out to other communities … we just can’t have them become super-spreaders,” Kelly said.
The order applied to people living at the houses deemed to be “close contacts” — those who spent more than 10 minutes within six feet of a person who has tested positive back to 48 hours before the patient’s symptoms began, officials said.
“Our situation remains dynamic, and we all should expect that to continue moving forward,” Chancellor Douglas Girod said in a statement Friday.
KU began testing every student, faculty and staff member for COVID-19 as they returned to campus this month. The goal of testing is to identify and isolate positive cases, and to establish base positivity rates.
“The overall number of positive cases and positivity rate remain in line with what we have expected from these results so far, and continue to align with what we are prepared to manage,” Girod said.
This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 4:54 PM with the headline "More COVID-19 cases found at KU as Greek community’s positive test rate climbs to 10%."
