Within the first week of school, 151 students and employees reported testing positive for COVID-19, according to the LSU COVID-19 Dashboard. As of Friday, there were 190 reported active cases in the LSU community.
The dashboard’s total COVID-19 count reflects all cases since May 9. By the first day of school on Monday, Aug. 23, 359 cases had been reported. Five days later, on Friday, that number shot up to 510.
The new totals come in as multiple residence halls and Greek houses have had to go through required COVID-19 testing due to high traces of the virus found in wastewater studies. Before school started, all sorority houses and some fraternity houses had to undergo testing, causing traffic delays and long wait times for on-campus testing sites.
North, South and West halls joined that list two days after classes started on Aug. 25, when residents received emails saying they’d have to be in their dorms by Thursday evening to be tested for COVID.
Acadian Hall, Broussard Hall and Camellia Hall have also shown a significantly high shedding of the virus in wastewater studies, according to the most recent update to the dashboard.
Though those were the only residence halls to reflect a high enough shedding of the virus for required testing, the only residential areas to not have at least some presence of COVID-19 in the wastewater as of Friday were Azalea Hall, Edward Gay Apartments, Herget Hall and some Greek houses.
The LSU COVID-19 reporting dashboard updates at about 4 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The dashboard was not updated Monday, likely due to campus closures associated with Hurricane Ida.