A university spokesperson confirmed an OU COVID-19 dashboard is set to launch late this week, although details are still being finalized.
In a Tuesday morning email to The Daily, OU Director of Media Relations Kesha Keith said administrators plan to update the dashboard — which will include Cleveland County and regional area statistics, as well as Goddard Health Center results — daily. The Cleveland County Health Department is partnering with OU to track positive cases identified as faculty, staff or students.
This comes after an Aug. 20 announcement that 62 out of 4,516 students received positive results after conducting self-administered tests before moving into on-campus housing. The university also confirmed one student has tested positive for coronavirus since moving in on campus, according to an online update.
Keith previously said in a July 6 email the university did not plan to continually update data on university community members that test positive.
"The health department is chiefly responsible for announcing positive cases and contact-tracing. The university partners with the health department as appropriate," Keith said in the email. "The university is not notified each time an employee, visitor or student tests positive, and therefore the reporting of such figures would be difficult and, ultimately, likely inaccurate."
In her Tuesday email, Keith didn’t respond to a question referencing that statement and asking why the university’s plans regarding a dashboard had changed.
The creation of OU’s dashboard will add the university to a list of Big 12 institutions — including the University of Texas and Texas Christian University — that are providing updated on-campus COVID-19 case counts.
University-reported cases “will not be reflective of those outside Cleveland County” or obtained via rapid testing unless it’s self-reported, Keith said in the email. OU community members who receive a positive test from Goddard are tracked according to their provided addresses.
Community members who currently live in Cleveland County are reported through the county’s health department if they provide their on-campus or Cleveland County address, Keith said in the email. Addresses outside of Cleveland County will be tracked in their respective county health department and may not be reflected on OU’s dashboard.
Goddard staff members encourage community members to use local addresses so medical communications can be sent to the patient directly, and so tracking and reporting can be facilitated, according to the email.
Numbers obtained from Goddard Health PCR testing and off-campus testing self-reported through the university’s screening form will help create a more accurate dashboard, Keith said in the email. The university has not communicated plans to enforce the use of the screening tool among community members.
