Pitt adds 74 covid-19 cases in 3 days

The University of Pittsburgh reported 73 new infections of covid-19 among students, and one employee case, between Friday and Monday, the school’s Covid-19 Medical Response Office (CMRO) said.

In an update, the office attributed the staggering increase in cases to “large-scale exposures at social engagements over Halloween weekend.”

“This is cause for alarm — and heightened vigilance,” the update reads. “We will continue responding quickly and monitoring the case numbers closely.”

The university’s five-day moving average of positive cases per day more than doubled since Friday — rising from 8.2 to 16.8.

“The numbers aren’t pretty—on our Pittsburgh campus or, for that matter, for many communities and universities across the nation,” Dr. John Williams, director of the CMRO, said Wednesday. “This has resulted everywhere from social gatherings large and small.”

The spike follows a week of already higher-than-normal case levels. Pitt adjusted the risk posture from “guarded” to “elevated” over the weekend, tightening restrictions on some public places and activities. It also moved up a shelter-in-place period, originally scheduled to precede Thanksgiving break, by three days. Students are being asked to only leave their dormitories or homes to attend class, pick up food, exercise or other essential activities.

“Our rapid shift to sheltering in place aims to stem the further spread of the virus,” Williams said. “It’s an approach that has worked exceptionally well for our community before, and one that we need every University of Pittsburgh student to embrace again so that they can depart campus, virus free, in just a few short weeks.”

From late September and all throughout October, Pitt had recorded relatively low case levels, often recording only two or three cases per day on the campus of around 30,000 students. The Oakland campus relaxed to “guarded” risk posture in mid-October, allowing more classes to be held in-person and opening more public spaces for shared use.

According to the latest update from the CMRO, there are now 110 active student cases in isolation — there has been 442 since Aug. 1. The update also shares one new case at Pitt-Greensburg and eight at Pitt-Johnstown since Friday (seven students and one employee).