Positive tests at UT indicate a silent spread
AUSTIN — Among the 1,200 University of Texas students who were tested for the coronavirus in advance of last weekend’s football opener — a negative test was required for students to attend — 95 tested positive.
The results, among students who were not exhibiting symptoms, suggest that the virus could be silently spreading on campus to a degree not previously known.
University health officials later determined that 26 of the students who tested positive had previously tested positive and had recovered to an extent that they no longer were considered contagious.
Even excluding those 26 cases, the positivity rate of the nearly 1,200 students is 5.8 percent. That’s a much higher positivity rate than the university community has seen overall.
Amy Young, the vice dean of professional practice at the Dell Medical School and a member of the executive committee for fall opening, said that without comparing the students who were tested for the football game with students who have been tested as part of the proactive community testing program, it’s impossible to say how much overlap there is between the two groups.
“I think there’s selection bias in all the testing that we’re doing. In this case, it happened to be kids who had the propensity to want to go watch a football game,” she said. “From my perspective, this broadens our view of what’s going on with our students.”
Just 2 percent of the over 7,900 proactive community tests have been positive since early June. These tests are administered to asymptomatic faculty, students and staff who volunteer to be tested.
The university has reported 1,117 cases of the virus since March, with more than 600 reported since classes started Aug. 26.
Spencer Fox, associate director of the university’s COVID-19 modeling consortium, said the higher positivity rate among the football fans could be attributed to the small sample size of 1,200 students. However, he said it also could show that certain students are taking more risks than others when it comes to the coronavirus.
“These are students who are willing to attend an in-person event, which is a risky event,” he said. “Anytime you bring that many people together, even if they are all spread out in the stands, it has the potential to have transmission there.”
Fox said he found the higher positivity rate among this group concerning.
“It could mean there’s hidden transmission happening on campus that we’re not detecting from the campus testing plan,” he said. “The same students who might be willing to take more risks with how they are interacting with their friends, whether it’s parting or hanging out, those same students might be more likely to attend UT football games. That could be the explanation for that higher positive rate.”
The university banned parties on and off campus this semester, and students are expected to comply with Austin’s guidelines limiting in-person gatherings. According to UT’s student conduct rules, those who deliberately engage in behavior that threatens the health and safety of students, faculty, staff and visitors will be subject to disciplinary action.