The University of South Carolina has 501 active coronavirus cases as of Thursday, according to the newest update of the COVID-19 dashboard.
Of those cases, 491 are students and 10 are university employees. The active case count is down from the last reporting period, which showed 654 active cases.
The total percent positive rate for the latest reporting period, Sept. 8 to Sept. 10, is currently at 8.4%. There are still 153 pending tests that are awaiting results for this time period.
From Sept. 8 to Sept. 10, 1,129 people were tested, an increase from the 503 reported on Tuesday, but still lower than the over 2,000 the university tested in the previous reporting period.
On Sept. 3, the saliva testing lab had to shut down after a “key lab staffer” became ill, a letter from President Bob Caslen said. Saliva testing on Davis Field restarted Tuesday at a reduced capacity of 200 students per day.
Quarantine and isolation housing have 40.2% of their capacity in use currently. This is also down from the 65.5% reported on Tuesday. Bates West, the National Advocacy Center and SpringHill Suites in the Vista are all serving as quarantine/isolation locations for students.
"I am pleased with the progress we are seeing in the lowering of campus COVID cases. We do anticipate more positive cases next week as we see the effects of increased socializing over the Labor Day weekend, the results of targeted testing and further ramping up of our capacity to test asymptomatic students, faculty and staff," Caslen said in an email statement.
The campus alert level is still at “low,” the second-lowest level on the alert scale. The alert level is calculated using 11 factors, including testing, case burden and quarantine/isolation capacity.
The COVID-19 dashboard will be updated every Tuesday and Friday.
Correction Sept. 17: A previous version of this article misstated that 2,000 tests were conducted daily. Two thousand tests were conducted in the previous reporting period.