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. 2024 Nov;72(8):3049-3057.
doi: 10.1080/07448481.2022.2153600. Epub 2023 Jan 3.

SARS-CoV-2 control on a large urban college campus without mass testing

Christopher O'Donnell  1 , Katherine Brownlee  2 , Elise Martin  1 , Joe Suyama  3 , Steve Albert  4 , Steven Anderson  5 , Sai Bhatte  6 , Kenyon Bonner  5 , Chad Burton  7 , Micaela Corn  8 , Heather Eng  9 , Bethany Flage  10 , Jay Frerotte  11 , Goundappa K Balasubramani  9 , Catherine Haggerty  9 , Joel Haight  12 , Lee H Harrison  1 , Amy Hartman  10 , Thomas Hitter  13 , Wendy C King  9 , Kate Ledger  8 , Jane W Marsh  1 , Margaret C McDonald  9 , Bethany Miga  14 , Kimberly Moses  15 , Anne Newman  9 , Meg Ringler  8 , Mark Roberts  16 , Theresa Sax  9 , Anantha Shekhar  17 , Matthew Sterne  18 , Tyler Tenney  13 , Marian Vanek  5 , Alan Wells  19 , Sally Wenzel  20 , John Williams  21   22
Affiliations

SARS-CoV-2 control on a large urban college campus without mass testing

Christopher O'Donnell et al. J Am Coll Health. 2024 Nov.

Abstract

Objective: A small percentage of universities and colleges conducted mass SARS-CoV-2 testing. However, universal testing is resource-intensive, strains national testing capacity, and false negative tests can encourage unsafe behaviors.

Participants: A large urban university campus.

Methods: Virus control centered on three pillars: mitigation, containment, and communication, with testing of symptomatic and a random subset of asymptomatic students.

Results: Random surveillance testing demonstrated a prevalence among asymptomatic students of 0.4% throughout the term. There were two surges in cases that were contained by enhanced mitigation and communication combined with targeted testing. Cumulative cases totaled 445 for the term, most resulting from unsafe undergraduate student behavior and among students living off-campus. A case rate of 232/10,000 undergraduates equaled or surpassed several peer institutions that conducted mass testing.

Conclusions: An emphasis on behavioral mitigation and communication can control virus transmission on a large urban campus combined with a limited and targeted testing strategy.

Keywords: COVID-19; College; SARS-CoV-2; infection prevention; targeted testing.

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