University Statements

Earlier this evening, Cornell University conducted its regular weekday update of our COVID-19 tracking dashboard to reflect 13 confirmed positive cases that were detected yesterday through our surveillance and for-cause testing program. Of those cases, several were related to cases previously identified by the university, and those students had already been in quarantine for several days.

While any increase in the number of infections on campus is significant, our aggressive testing and response protocol, carried out in partnership with the Tompkins County Health Department and Cayuga Health System, continues to identify the presence of the virus in individuals as early as possible after infection, allowing for rapid quarantine and isolation to help contain the spread of the virus on and off campus. Thanks in large part to these efforts — and to the dedication of almost everyone in the Cornell and greater Ithaca communities – our campus community positivity rate remains below 0.3%, and much lower than what our scientific modeling’s “optimistic” scenario had projected for this point in the semester.

Joel M. Malina
Vice President for University Relations