COLUMBUS – OSU president Dr. Kristina Johnson says she’s cautiously optimistic that students have gotten the message about precautions to stave off the virus that causes COVID-19 after seeing positive test results decline.
About 1,500 students have tested positive for the novel coronavirus since Aug. 14, a rate of 3.7% for the 40,000 tests the university has administered, Johnson told reporters during Gov. Mike DeWine’s regular televised coronavirus briefing Tuesday.
She believes students have learned that “it’s pretty easy to transmit this virus but it’s also pretty easy, if you do just a couple of things — wear a mask and stay socially distant stop it transmitting,” she said.
The positivity rate among the university’s 12,000 students living on campus dropped from nearly 6% in later August to under 4%.
The rate among off-campus students was higher – almost 5.5% — but that was down from 11% late last month, Johnson said.
Ohio State is testing approximately 20,000 students and 2,500 faculty and staff. Twenty-five university employees have tested positive since Aug. 1, according to the university’s website.