Penn State Reports Fewer Positive Cases of COVID-19 Among Athletes
Penn State on Wednesday reported fewer positive cases of COVID-19 among athletes last week.
Penn State said that 20 athletes tested positive for COVID-19 during the period of Sept. 12-18. The athletic department conducted 830 tests. The numbers are included in the university's weekly COVID-19 dashboard report.
Penn State does not release a breakdown of test results among specific teams.
Over the previous two weeks, positive cases had risen among athletes, with Penn State reporting 98 cases from Aug. 29-Sept. 11. On the Sept. 17 edition of the Penn State Coaches Show, athletic director Sandy Barbour said she expected the positive case totals to come down.
"We had great success for about 10 weeks with the programs that were on campus," Barbour said. "We had really, really good success from a very low test-positivity rate. And then, as all of our students came back, we encountered some challenges, just like the campus did. We’ve had a couple of weeks of testing that have been pretty high, not out of control, but they’ve been certainly higher than we want them to be.
"But we also know that, since our testing results lag a week, we know that we’ve kinda gotten that under control and we’ve got some test results coming next week that are much better."
The Penn State football team is scheduled to resume training camp Sept. 30.
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