Utah State University has reported three coronavirus cases. USU made the announcement Tuesday that two cases had been confirmed. That number has increased by one as of Wednesday.
"We have been expecting that someone would be diagnosed,” said Amanada DeRito, spokesperson with Utah State University. “At this point it was just inevitable."
DeRito is overseeing USU COVID-19 communications and said one of the confirmed cases is a USU employee who has not been on the Logan campus for more than 14 days. One other person is a student who lives off campus. The most recently reported case involves a student who is living out of state.
USU is asking anyone associated with the Logan, or other statewide campus sites including USU Eastern in Price and the Blanding campus, who has symptoms or has been tested for coronavirus to fill out an online questionnaire.
"We rely on people to report to us if they have been tested and if they have been tested and they are positive,” She said. “We've tried to track them down and get people to report. These are the first two that turned out to not be rumors.”
USU is using information gathered through the online questionnaire to make sure employees are receiving adequate human resource services and that students who test positive are receiving proper medical care. DeRito said the questionnaire also helps direct decision making by university administrator.
"Providing all kinds of information to make sure we know what needs to be done,” DeRita said. “And then that information provides information to the president and other decision makers so we can consider the bigger decision of how to go about continuing the remote learning environment, if certain things need to be closed or changed."
USU is still operating on Level 2 of their Infectious Disease Response Plan. President Noel Cockett announced USU is preparing for the potential of county health officials taking actions in the future that would move USU to Level 1 status. USU administrators are currently working to identify which employees will provide essential on-site functions if necessary.
