The University of Georgia saw another large decline in reported cases of COVID-19 from September 14th to September 20th, with only 163 new cases reported. The majority of cases continue to come from students, with 153 of the cases from last week. 10 staff members and no faculty members reported positive tests.
Asymptomatic surveillance testing did see an increase in the number of tests performed with the daily testing average almost reaching 400 asymptomatic individuals a day. Almost 2,000 tests were performed last week, with only 70 of them being positive, lowering the asymptomatic positivity rate to 3.55%, which is about halved compared to last week.
These numbers are only representative of positive tests reported in the Dawg Check app. UGA warns that the data, "does not serve as an accurate barometer of the current status of COVID-19."
This week's report comes as a group of tenured faculty calls on university administration to do more to prevent the people of Athens from what they call the spillover of Covid-19 infection from the university community. In a letter to administrators, the faculty members call for large scale mandatory and random testing, a contact tracing regime and greater transparency with data.
