One week after Halloween, COVID-19 cases soar in Texas A&M

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – COVID-19 data reported by the Texas A&M University campus shows an alarming spike in positive cases affecting the group, the football team and first responders on campus.

Two new groups of viruses were confirmed at Artillery Band Dorm 12 and the Special Events Division of Texas A&M Emergency Medical Services on Monday. This all comes on the same day that Texas A&M football announced it was halting training due to positive cases in the team.

Demani Richardson did not make the trip to Columbia, SC due to a positive COVID-19 test, and upon returning from the game two more positive cases emerged in the squad, a player and a staff member. .

The positivity rate on campus doubled in the week following Halloween, according to data from the school’s COVID-19 dashboard.

Dr Garry Gore, director of emergency services for student health services at Texas A&M University, says the increase was something they expected to see as students continue to rally. He adds that they are also seeing more students with higher fever and more severe symptoms.

“We usually watch a few weeks after a holiday or football game, and we see little bumps and spikes and these are typical and to be expected, so you don’t get excited,” Dr. Gore. “But we noticed that I really increased significantly last week, we tripled our number on campus.”

As the week ending Halloween, the positivity rate was 4.8%. The following week, ending November 7, the rate was 8.1%. Self-reported active cases soared in November.

As of November 1, there were 138 active cases on campus. That number was 231 last Friday, the last time the chart was updated.

Daily new cases have also skyrocketed his month. On Sunday November 1, only five new student cases were self-reported. Six days later, 70 new cases were self-reported by the students.

Dr Gore adds that the only way the numbers will go down before the winter break is to take the situation seriously.

“Obviously the spike you are seeing now is because people have had enough of the tests and are tired of hearing about Covid and just did something normal again, or ‘they blatantly ignore the warnings,’ said Dr Sang.

A big reminder, according to university health officials, is to make sure you don’t get tested too early, as it can turn out to be a false negative.

“If you think you might have COVID-19, testing within the first three days is not recommended,” Dr. Gore said. “We have some of these cases where we see a group spreading here because the students were tested very early, on the first or second and third day of illness they tested negative, they said ‘OK , I’m free and clear ‘and then they turned out to have a false negative and they were releasing it without knowing it.

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