By Kurt Martone, Contributing Writer
St. Bonaventure University’s pool testing compliance rate fell 20%, down to 74% participation from the previous week’s record high of 94%, according to the university’s week 5 COVID update email that was sent out Feb. 26.
Despite this falloff in participation, Bonaventure continues to allow students to visit other residence halls with some restrictions, as well as allowing students and other campus community members to attend outdoor athletic events, as the rescheduled fall and spring seasons begin to ramp up.
This lift of some restrictions is based on the university’s pool test results. According to the week five COVID-19 update on Feb. 26, only one pool came back positive. However, as the university claimed in its email, “We’re left to wonder if we missed any positive cases,” as 26% of students failed to show up during their assigned pool testing time.
Tom Missel, the chief communications officer at the university, and the co-chair of the COVID task force, said he believes the sudden drop in participation was due to three factors.
Missel said this could be due to, “switching the time from 1-4:30 p.m. to 10 a.m. – 1 p.m., the weather wasn’t great, and this was the second pool test for this group of students.”
Feb. 22 was a dreary mix of snow and rain, with a high of 35 degrees, according to weather.com.
According to Missel, for this week’s pool test, on March 1, compliance rate was back up to 88%.
“It turns out that it might have just been the weather, and the fact that we emphasized the importance of showing up for pool testing in last Friday’s COVID-19 update email,” Missel said.
The weekly pool tests are a sample of 25% of the student population each week.
We believe pool testing has been effective so far in identifying any potential for asymptomatic spread,” Missel said.
Pool tests are only one way that Bonaventure collects data on student positivity.
Missel said, “Of the 42 cases among the campus community who’ve tested positive since Jan. 1, 34 were students, but only five of those have been identified through pool testing.”
Despite last week’s low participation rate, there are no plans to reinstate any new lifts on restrictions, such as the university’s recent approval on allowing visitors in dorms.
“As long as the [participation] rate stays fairly consistent in the 85 to 90% or better range and screening compliance stays high, there are no plans to walk back restrictions – unless there is a noticeable spike in cases across campus,” Missel said.
The university has further plans in place to potentially loosen more restrictions by the end of this week, according to Missel, as long as this week’s pool testing results “are good.”
martonkd18@bonaventure.edu
