University of Tennessee lifts some COVID-19 restrictions as active cases drop

The University of Tennessee at Knoxville is lifting some of the COVID-19 restrictions that were put in place two weeks ago, reopening the the Tennessee Recreation Center for Students and allowing limited indoor events. 

UT will reopen some study spaces in dorms that were closed as well. Restrictions on visitors to dorms are still in place, Chancellor Donde Plowman said during her COVID-19 update Friday. These changes will go into effect on Monday.

"We want to be able to lift additional restrictions, and we need further information to do so," Plowman said. "So the data from our comprehensive testing efforts in the residence halls and the Greek houses will be critical in informing whether we can lift restrictions going forward."

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Indoor events will have to comply with the Knox County Board of Health gathering guidelines, which limits events to 25 people in a 900 square foot space and includes a mask requirement, Plowman said. Provost John Zomchick gave a warning about too many students gathering in the library. 

"We need to keep that library safe for the use of our entire university community," Zomchick said, referencing students ignoring capacity limits in the library's study rooms. "We can't afford to have it become a site of community transmission, which could force us to close the building and deprive faculty and students having a place to hold appropriate and safe and essential scholarly activities."

UT has seen a decline in the number of active COVID-19 cases over the last several days, with 119 active cases and 458 people in isolation as of Sept. 24. 

While that is promising, it can also be attributed to fewer people being tested, said Dr. Spencer Gregg, director of the Student Health Center. 

"We are concerned about these low numbers," Gregg said. "Hopefully they reflect the lower rate of infection. I mean, that's exactly what you know we want to see with all the mitigation efforts that we've been doing. But ... our concern is really related to the possibility that it's more likely reflection of decreased participation in testing and self-isolation procedures."

The low testing numbers are not related to a low number of available tests, but fewer students being tested for COVID-19, Gregg said. 

Wastewater and pool testing

UT has started testing more broadly across campus, including wastewater testing at all dorms, fraternity and sorority houses. Students living on campus will also participate in saliva pool testing, where they provide and saliva sample that is tested for COVID-19. 

"With time, as we test more and more facilities, we will get a better understanding of what the positivity rate is across our campus as a whole," Gregg said. "In turn, that gives us an idea of the likelihood of your risk of exposure on campus because as that positivity rate goes up, you're actually more likely to be exposed."

If either of those testing methods show presence of COVID-19, UT will follow up with additional, more precise testing. Frank Loeffler, governor's chair professor of microbiology who is coordinating pooled saliva testing, said this is a more economical way of testing that will also identify where COVID-19 is on campus. 

"The goal is not to punish anybody," Loeffler said earlier this week. "The goal is to develop understanding of the prevalence of the virus so that the university and administration can make meaningful decisions to ease up restrictions and give students and the Vols community the best possible on-campus experience."