Back-to-school testing at Fort Lewis College found 16 positive COVID-19 cases since Aug. 17, college officials said Tuesday.
The results came from 1,616 tests that had been processed as of Tuesday. Some results were still coming in – the college had given 1,792 tests in total to students, faculty and staff members. Three of the 16 people have recovered and no longer have to isolate. It was the first week of testing in what will be a semester-long testing effort.
“We knew we would see positive cases, considering the number of people we would be testing this week,” said Jeff Dupont, associate vice president of Student Affairs, in a news release Friday. “We were adequately prepared to isolate anyone who tested positive and support them through our case management team.”
The college and San Juan Basin Public Health are contact tracing all positive cases. SJBPH does not consider the cases to be an outbreak and is monitoring the situation closely.
“COVID-19 is very much still circulating in our community, including in people with no symptoms,” said Liane Jollon, executive director of SJBPH, in the news release. “These results confirm how important widespread testing is to controlling the spread of the virus.”
La Plata County had recorded 240 positive COVID cases as of Tuesday, according to SJBPH. Archuleta County had 46 cases. Colorado had 55,800 cases as of Tuesday, ranking 31st in the country compared with coronavirus outbreaks in other states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
FLC residents moving into on-campus housing were required to be tested and were screened for symptoms. All other students and employees were highly encouraged to get tested.
“We strongly encourage FLC students who live off-campus to take advantage of the testing opportunity that FLC is providing to further control the spread of COVID-19,” Jollon said.
To prevent the spread of COVID-19, FLC and SJBPH “strongly” advised students and employees to wear masks at all times when indoors or in centralized areas of campus, to practice frequent handwashing, to maintain physical distance of at least 6 feet and to monitor for symptoms daily via the Fort Lewis app.
Testing will remain available for any member of the FLC community throughout the fall semester. FLC community members can visit www.fortlewis.edu/covid19testing to register for a test. Results are available within 48 to 72 hours, and support will be available for all positive cases.
