Do college campuses still need COVID-19 surveillance testing?
Duke, Cornell and the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign)conducted widespread COVID-19 surveillance testing during the 2020-2021 academic year. As of early March 2021, Cornell had 645 positive cases amongst students, faculty and staff, while Duke had 639 cases and the University of Illinois had 6,122 positive cases. All of these institutions regularly reported positivity rates under 1 percent, yet their population infection rates were dramatically different; 4 percent for Cornell, around the same for Duke, and over 20 percent for the University of Illinois. All these schools have remained open during the entire academic year, using a variety of in-person and remote education strategies.