In an evening advisory, USF system President Steve Currall announced one employee and one student have tested positive for COVID-19.
Courtesy of U.S. Department of State
By Jonah Hinebaugh
Two people –– one student and one employee –– at the USF Tampa campus have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus.
In the latest advisory –– which came at 5:25 p.m.on Wednesday –– USF system President Steve Currall said the student tested positive after traveling abroad. The student hasn’t been on campus this semester and is self-isolating in another state.
The employee worked in USF Innovative Education and hasn’t been on campus since March 13, the last day of in-person classes, Currall said.
“Students and staff members who may have come into close contact with these individuals are being contacted separately with appropriate health guidance,” Currall said in the advisory. “We sincerely wish both members of our community a full and rapid recovery.”
The university has also created a new section on its coronavirus webpage dedicated to providing information about positive tests. Currall said the page will be continually updated as the university learns of more cases.
The total number of cases in the USF system is now four.
On March 22, the university announced a USF St. Petersburg student had tested positive for the disease. The first case, announced March 18, was an employee who worked at the Tampa campuses’ Counseling Center.
The university said the employee in the first case came into contact with at least 13 students and several other staff members. The student at USF St. Petersburg hadn’t been on campus since late February, so there was no need for further “contact-tracing,” the university said.
The new cases come as the university announced it would give students the option of making their spring semester courses pass/fail. The grading option came after nearly 7,000 students signed a petition calling for the change.
As of 6:23 p.m. Wednesday, there were 1,977 positive cases in Florida and 23 deaths, according to the Florida Health Department.
Of those, there were 123 positive and 10 pending cases in Hillsborough County. No deaths have been reported in the county. Most of the positive cases haven’t been linked to travel and are listed as “unknown.”
In Pinellas County, there are 54 positive and 52 pending cases. So far, one death has been reported in the county. A majority of the positive cases were found to be travel-related, according to the Health Department.
This post was updated at 6:23 p.m. to reflect new totals in positive cases and deaths.
