UA MAKES space for 260 beds for isolating students.

Housing includes an entire dormitory

FAYETTEVILLE — Space for 260 students has been set aside as quarantine and isolation housing at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, during the coronavirus pandemic, a spokesman said.

The beds are in different parts of campus and include all of the dormitory Holcombe Hall.

“No students are living in Holcombe Hall this semester” as typical residents, UA spokesman Christopher Spencer said in an email.

UA on Wednesday reported a two-day increase of 15 positive virus test results for people who may have spent time on campus. Since Aug. 10, a total of 46 cases have been identified through campus testing, state Department of Health testing or self-reporting of off-campus testing, according to UA’s website.

Student-only positive case totals are not published by UA.

On Aug. 18, Spencer gave a lower number for isolation and quarantine spaces available on campus — 124, less than half the new total — when asked by an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter. Spencer on Wednesday said the university last week

was still identifying spaces for quarantine and isolation housing, so a total had not yet been fully developed.

Official move-in for students living in UA residence halls began Aug. 11, and fall semester classes started this week.

Quarantine and isolation housing on campus are part of the university’s plan to stay open during the pandemic, with UA leaders saying they are prepared for some students to test positive for the respiratory virus.

In guidelines developed for campus reopenings, the American College Health Association said “adequate numbers of rooms should be pre-identified to accommodate an increase in need” for isolation and quarantine housing.

No total has been given by UA for students now living in quarantine housing. Mark Rushing, associate vice chancellor for university relations, has said UA does not plan on releasing such data, as it wants “to avoid disclosing student and/or medical information.”

Spencer said Holcombe Hall “is not currently in use.”

The goal is to keep the dorm available and “use it only for those who test positive for COVID-19,” Spencer said, though he also described it as a possible space for students in need of quarantine housing because of possible covid-19 exposure.

The quarantine and isolation spaces are currently reserved for students with UA housing contracts, Spencer said. As of Wednesday, a total of 4,925 students had such contracts, Spencer said.

Holcombe Hall has a typical capacity of 143 students, but Spencer said the layout of rooms and areas would probably affect the dorm’s capacity when used as isolation housing, as there would be a need for “unique configurations” based on “bathroom and common-space needs.”

Spencer said that earlier in the year some student staff members — about three — moved into Holcombe Hall before the decision to reserve it for isolation and quarantine housing.

“This decision was made in part because the hall was not close to capacity. Those student staff were reassigned to other halls,” Spencer said.

UA now plans to publish updates on campus test results three times a week: on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The most recent update covers Monday and Tuesday.

Over those two days, there were 199 results from testing done on campus. Totals include testing done by the Razorback athletic department.

On-campus testing is available “to all students, faculty and staff who are exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19, or who have been identified as a contact of an individual diagnosed with COVID-19,” according to UA’s website, with asymptomatic testing being conducted “as supplies, test kits and capacity allow.” The university is partnering with a North Little Rock private lab to process the tests, a spokesman said last week.

On Monday and Tuesday, seven positive results were from campus tests. In addition, eight people self-reported positive test results.

For the previous seven-day period, from Aug. 17 through Sunday, UA reported 26 new cases.

The total was adjusted Wednesday to 26 from 24. Rushing, in an email, said the change had to do with information about self-reported results of testing done off-campus. The information had been submitted to the university through an online form, he said.

“Two community members who self-reported to the university last week originally reported via the form that they had not been on campus, but through follow up calls with the individuals the university determined that they had been on campus or intended to be on campus this semester, and so, those cases were added to the time period in which their self-reports were received,” Rushing said.

The quarantine and isolation spaces are currently reserved for students with UA housing contracts, Spencer said. As of Wednesday, a total of 4,925 students had such contracts, he said.