COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State reported Wednesday night that 882 students have tested positive for COVID-19, a major increase since the last update on Saturday, when 495 cases were reported.

This is the first update the university has released since it began conducting mass surveillance testing on Monday of off-campus students at a rate of 8,000 tests per week, in addition to the 12,000 students living on-campus who get weekly tests.

The update showed a 5.7 percent positivity rate for the most recent 24 hour period for on-campus students and a 9.66 percent positivity rate for students who live off-campus. The cumulative positivity rate was 3.13 percent and the seven day average of the positivity rate was 4.3 percent. 

Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday he discussed Ohio State's rising positivity rate with the university's new president, Kristina Johnson. 

“If that positivity number keeps going up, obviously something is going to have to be done," he said.

DeWine said a decision to close down the campus would probably not be his to make, suggesting he would leave it up to university officials. 

On Monday, Mayor Andrew Ginther said the university is testing students on an unprecedented scale and lauded the university for sending the message that large off-campus gatherings are unacceptable.

“Clearly they’ve been very, very serious and clear with students about the code of conduct,” Ginther said. “We’ve continued to work with them to try to educate students and the entire campus community around gatherings, particularly at private residences, and what our expectations are to make sure we’re doing our part to slow the spread.”

 

Some students have fallen ill while others remain asymptomatic. Last Friday, Columbus Fire responded to a medical emergency at a quarantine dorm, Lawrence Tower, according to a public information officer. So far this is the only EMS response from the department at a quarantine dorm.

According to the Wednesday evening update, 198 students were in university isolation housing and another 99 students who have been exposed to a positive student were in a two week quarantine.

Freshman Eric Rote has not tested positive, but he had to move into a quarantine dorm Friday when his roommate’s test came back positive. Rote said Friday he was experiencing intermittent pounding sensations in the back of his head and slight throat pain swallowing, but otherwise felt all right.

Based on the timeline of his roommate’s sickness, which worsened Thursday night, Rote said he expected his symptoms to become more severe over the weekend.

And they did, he said in a follow up text.

“I got a new cough that hurts, throat still hurts, entire upper body aches, and random piercing headaches that run along my forehead to my ears,” he said. “Oh and still have that weird pain in the back of my head.”

On Monday morning, he was briefly let out of quarantine to get a COVID-19 rapid test. The test came back negative, leaving Rote unsure of what his symptoms mean.

Rote said he hopes classes can continue in-person till at least mid-September so he can have one more week to get acquainted with the university and make friends. He said he felt like he was just starting to find his groove when he had to go into quarantine.

“I'm just hoping my two weeks go by fast and I don't have to go to the hospital,” he said. “I hope I just feel gross for a week.”

For other students who are asymptomatic, the worst part of testing positive is the boredom of isolation.

Freshman Kaylie Williams from Cincinnati initially tested negative when she moved in on Aug. 19, but by Monday Aug. 24 when she got her next weekly test she was positive.

“I'm just grateful I'm not actually sick,” she said. “This isn't bad here either. They're really taking care of us.”

Williams gets food delivered to her room and the university gave her a mini basketball hoop when she moved in. Her shot is getting pretty good, she said.

When she is not shooting hoops, Williams passes the time by videochatting friends and looking out her window. She watches and waves to her classmates entering quarantine.

“I've just been sitting here since Wednesday night watching all these people roll in,” she said. “That's all I do. It's kind of depressing.”

She was thankful that her extended family dropped off a Chick-fil-A sandwich and some coloring books. The building staff delivered it to her door in full PPE, she said.

“They just knocked on the door and they have on like Hazmat suits. It looks like I'm in a movie. It's totally crazy, totally surreal.”

Williams said Ohio State, her dream school, was living up to be everything she wanted in her first week on campus. Even in quarantine, she’s trying to stay positive, but mentally it’s hard to be cooped up in a room for two weeks all alone, she said. She wishes she had a roommate, like some of the others in Lawrence Tower who are positive.

 “I just graduated from high school and my whole senior spring was canceled,” she said. “I had graduation on YouTube. And then now we're up here.”

Julia Mancini, a nursing student, is also trying to stay positive.

“It’s my last year, so I'm hoping that everyone can pull it together,” she said after getting a COVID-19 swab test.

The campus’s COVID-19 "outbreak" is the second largest active cluster of cases anywhere in the state, according to an Ohio Department of Health spokesperson. The state’s largest outbreak is also a college campus, the University of Dayton, where 970 students have tested positive, according to the university.

If the university does switch to fully online learning, life will go on more or less unchanged for some students who live off-campus and are already taking most of their classes virtually.

Matt Pawar, a senior, was enjoying his afternoon in the sun on the porch of his off-campus house with a friend.

“I only have one class in person so it wouldn't really make that big of a deal. I’ll just stay here with my friends and do the same thing.”

If Ohio State closes its dorms or shifts to e-learning, the area near campus could remain a COVID-19 hotspot with many off-campus students staying in town for the academic year.

Pawar is trying to enjoy his senior year with his friends as best he can amid the university's restrictions on social gatherings.

“It’s basically just been us, the roommates, hanging out. There haven’t really been any big things going on, just small get togethers, drinking with the boys,” he said. “It’s just a little annoying that we can’t have more people around.”

Campus bars remain packed in the evenings and some off-campus social gatherings have continued, students said. But Ohio State’s aggressive response to off-campus gatherings at private residences – the school issued 228 interim suspensions last week -- has made some students think twice about hosting parties.

That’s good news for Jeff Wells, who carts out cases of beer to customers’ cars from a convenience store on 13^th Ave., Tobacco International. Less beer to haul in the summer heat.

“I’ve pushed so much beer out of here over the years,” he said.  Sometimes, students will fill up the entire bed of an F150 with cases of beer, he said.

Not this week. While the store was slammed with business from Thursday to Sunday, Aug. 20 – 23, things have quieted down since the university took more action.

“We nearly sold out of all the beer that weekend,” he said. “Now it’s nothing close to what we’d normally get. It’s mostly just the smaller orders. But like one guy just left, I think he had eight cases. He ain’t going to drink all that himself.”