COVID-19 cases have fallen at Mizzou. Here’s what the school does if someone tests positive.

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    MISSOURI, USA (KCTV) — Despite initial rises in COVID-19 numbers, the University of Missouri has released new figures showing a significant decrease in cases on campus.

University officials say the school has 124 active cases, down from the 683 active cases they reported three weeks ago.

The school’s process for counting cases is admittedly incomplete, because it relies on self-reporting, but the university does coordinate directly with the Boone County Health Department on identifying and responding to suspected positive cases of coronavirus on campus.

For example, if a student or faculty member does not divulge to a county contact tracer that they are a part of the university, they do not get counted in the official tally.

When a student tests positive, if they live in a dorm or residence hall, the school will move them into a hotel room. Students who live off-campus do not get the same offer, but are asked to quarantine.

Then those who test positive will work with a case investigator from the university to carry out contact tracing and quarantine orders. Mizzou does not release the names of the hotels, in order to maintain student privacy.

KCTV5 spoke with a senior at the university who tested positive for COVID-19. She’s getting hundreds of likes on Twitter from her daily posts on life in isolation. She said most of her complaints were addressed, but it was not a smooth process at first.

“I got to the hotel with my pet and was turned away because they were just like, ‘We don’t allow pets. You can’t bring that here. I don’t know where you’re going to stay, but you can’t stay here with that,'” said Brandy Williams. “So I was just like, O.K. And I had to go through the whole entire process again, but eventually, I ended up taking it to a friend’s house. But I just thought that was kind of odd, since the university allows you to have pets on campus…”

So far, Mizzou has expelled two students and suspended three others for COVID-related violations. The university says those students willfully and knowingly engaged in actions that threatened campus security. Right now, Student Conduct is investigating 11 organizations.

Since August, nearly 1,500 people associated with the university have tested positive. Of the 124 active cases, 46 students are currently in quarantine or isolation, according to the school.

Across the state line, the University of Kansas has had 938 total cases. Kansas also works with their county health department, but the total cases at KU are counted from tests administered by the university, not purely from self-reporting.

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