Penn State’s COVID-19 Cases Hit New 12-Month High

For the second straight week, Penn State reported a 12-month high in COVID-19 cases at its University Park campus.

From Jan. 10 to 16, the university logged 523 COVID-19 cases on its COVID-19 Dashboard — 442 among students and 81 among employees. That figure easily broke last week’s 434 cases, which itself was a record high dating back to last January.

Penn State administered 7,336 total tests between Jan. 10 and 16, which resulted in a 7.1% positivity rate. Although that mark tops most weeks over the past year, it’s lower than Jan. 3 to 6 (10.5%) and Dec. 27 to Jan. 2 (13%).

Effective this spring, the university no longer provides quarantine and isolation capacity figures on its COVID-19 Dashboard. A Penn State spokesperson said the data was removed from the online reporting tool since the university “did not have major use” of Eastview Terrace quarantine and isolation facilities.

Overall, Penn State’s COVID-19 cases have surged since the university reported traces of the virus’s omicron variant on campus back in December. The university has reported at least 1,216 cases among University Park students and employees.

That mark is consistent with trends in Centre County and Pennsylvania, which have had record new case numbers over the past month. Both the county and state, however, have seen a slight downturn in recent days. On Wednesday, the commonwealth had fewer than 20,000 cases for a third consecutive day and a seven-day moving average of 22,551, down from 28,685 a week ago. Centre County’s seven-day average on Wednesday was 251, down from 291 a week ago.

“We have seen a slight decrease in the seven-day moving average but it’s too soon to tell if we’re truly at a peak,” Acting Secretary of Health Keara Klinepeter said on Wednesday during a visit to the free COVID-19 testing site at the Centre County Recycling and Refuse Authority. I think we’re probably getting close to the peak if we’re not at it yet, but I think there’s still a lot of work to be done because there is a two-week lag between case counts peaking and hospitalizations peaking and then deaths peaking after that. So even if we are at the peak by way of case counts, there’s still a lot of work to do.”

About 89.7% of students and 84.4% of employees at University Park are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to Penn State’s COVID-19 Dashboard. The university doesn’t report (or ask for) booster shot coverage.

Only unvaccinated students and employees are required to get tested for COVID-19 each week. This spring, Penn State is revoking Canvas access for students who miss mandatory weekly testing appointments. Previously, unvaccinated students were placed on interim suspension for skipping three straight testing opportunities.

This semester, drop-in and by-appointment asymptomatic COVID-19 testing is available for students and employees at the White Building on the following schedule:

• Mondays: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Tuesdays: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Wednesdays: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Thursdays: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Fridays: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Saturdays: noon to 5 p.m.
• Sundays: noon to 5 p.m.

StateCollege.com’s Geoff Rushton contributed to this report