COLUMBUS — Ohio State University President Kristina Johnson said the classroom “is one of the safest places to be” on the campus of one of the nation’s largest universities.
OSU has reconfigured 450 classrooms, reduced class sizes to 50 students, and routinely disinfects teaching spaces multiple times per day. Ms. Johnson outlined this for Gov. Mike DeWine during his coronavirus briefing Tuesday, during which Mr. DeWine also briefly dispelled misinformation about coronavirus camps that has been circulating online.
Despite safety measures put in place at OSU, 1,500 students and 25 employees have tested positive for the virus since Aug. 14, which Ms. Johnson attributed to students getting used to the new environment.
“I think it was ... students coming together for the first time and not recognizing that it’s pretty easy to transmit this virus, but it’s also pretty easy if you just a couple of things — wear a mask, stay socially distant — to stop the transmission,” she said.
OSU’s goal is to conduct 20,000 tests per week, Ms. Johnson said. That’s roughly the number of students who are commuting to in-person classes and living at dorms this semester.
Colleges, universities, and public and private grade schools across the state are navigating the beginning of a school year marked by new safety measures, a mix of online and in-person classes, and everything that accompanies both of those major changes in an already difficult year.
“Whether it’s kindergarten or third grade or 12th grade or college, our back to school this year is not a back to normal,” said Dr. Aaron Hamilton, associate chief safety and quality officer at the Cleveland Clinic.
On Tuesday, the first day of virtual classes for Toledo public schools were thwarted by a cyber attack that crashed its entire online system.
At Bowling Green State University, which began its semester last month, two professors wrote university leadership with concerns the school has been severely under-testing its student population.
Ms. Johnson said OSU’s positivity rate peaked in late August at around 5.7 percent. Its positivity rate has since dropped to 3.7 percent, which she sees as movement in the right direction.
“There is a reason for cautious optimism that our non-pharmaceutical interventions really are working,” she said.
The state health department on Tuesday reported 656 new cases, well below the 21-day average of 1,051 cases.
The drop could be due to the holiday weekend when fewer tests are conducted and reported to the state. It also reported 20 new deaths (average is 22), and 80 new hospitalizations (average is 73).
Ohio is nearing 132,000 total cases and 4,300 deaths.
Lucas County reported 127 new coronavirus cases since Friday, and three news deaths. The county’s total is 6,628 cases and 346 deaths since it began tracking results.
Mr. DeWine took time during the briefing to address the conspiracy theory he said he’s received many calls about since it started circulating online. He said Ohioans shouldn’t believe everything they read on the Internet, including that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is creating coronavirus camps in Ohio that would house people diagnosed with the virus.
“We can’t spend an hour, hour and a half every time just talking about every rumor that’s up on the Internet,” he said. “What we have tried to do since March was give people the best information that we could.
“We all have to admit,” he continued, “there are some downsides to the Internet.”
First Published September 8, 2020, 10:43 p.m.
