The University of Arizona’s voluntary quarantine ends Tuesday with school officials saying the county showing improvements in COVID-19 infection rates but they’re still not satisfied with student behavior.
“We know we need to test more,” said Dr. Richard Carmona, U of A Reentry Task Force Director. “We’re seeing what other universities are experiencing as students start to see that, if they test positive, they may be quarantined. They’re less likely to want to be tested. It may be that we have to start considering mandatory testing for students who come on campus and make it a condition of being a student if this continues. We’re doing everything we can to inspire, cajole, to plead with, to beg students to get tested.”
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Currently, testing is not mandated on all on-campus students beyond arrival on campus and if their wastewater testing returns a positive result. Carmona spoke of “testing fatigue” and the fear of being forced into quarantine.
Since schools opened, U of A has reported 2,291 positive cases out of 36,634 total students and faculty tests. There have been no student deaths reported, and hospitalizations are negligible.
The university officials say they have no plans to take all of their classes online or send students home for the year.
“People are following the rules,” said President Robert Robbins, citing a significant drop in neighborhood complaints about college student parties. Still, he said he’s still seeing some students disobeying campus rules.
“I think we have over 5,200 students who are attending face-to-face classes and have been for the last five weeks,” he said. “Because they’re in a controlled system where they have face coverings, and many of them are in labs where they have protective gear on, we’re just not seeing the transmission from students to students in the classroom or students to faculty and staff.”
Students returned to campus in August. Weeks later, Pima County reported 967 residents were diagnosed with COVID-19 for the week ending Sept. 13, the second consecutive week of increases in cases in the county while other counties in the state were continually falling.
Robbins said there were 252 students in isolation as of Friday. Forty-three dorm students were isolating off-campus.
“I think it would be best if we all just wore face coverings all the time,” Robbins said. “We know that that is one of the most effective measures we can do.”
