SIU reverses decision, decides to inform public of cases
August 20, 2020
SIU has reversed its decision not to announce active cases of COVID-19 affiliated with the university and will now be releasing that information on its coronavirus webpage.
The webpage now has a page called Active COVID cases, which can be found here.
This comes after the Daily Egyptian published an article yesterday about the university not announcing any testing numbers on campus.
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(See More: SIU will not be informing the public of COVID-19 outbreaks on campus; RAs told to keep quiet)
The positive cases are broken into three categories: students on campus, students off campus, and faculty and staff.
“These numbers may not be all-inclusive,” the website said. “Employees and students live in multiple counties that have varying reporting processes, and reporting of affiliation with the university is voluntary.”
Right now, according to SIU, there are 3 active COVID cases among SIU students living off campus.
The numbers can be found at https://siu.edu/coronavirus/
Guest contributor Danny Connolly is the executive producer for River Region Evening Edition and can be reached on Twitter at @DConnollyTV.
To stay up to date with all your southern Illinois news, follow the Daily Egyptian on Facebook and Twitter.
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mary jane • Aug 21, 2020 at 9:34 am
This reversal is ONLY because of the Daily Egyptian reporting. Kallie Cox & Danny Connolly – CONGRATULATIONS! You both should be proud of your breaking story. “Right now, according to SIU, there are 3 active COVID cases among SIU students living off campus.” This is incorrect, numbers on and off campus are higher. SIU Administration are only going to disclose the minimum amount of information they can get away with – business as usual.
Anne Fletcher • Aug 21, 2020 at 5:52 am
THANK YOU! The DE made a solid case to move the administration to do the right thing and, journalism prevailed! Thanks, Kallie, Danny, and staff!
Dave Johnson • Aug 20, 2020 at 5:13 pm
Congratulations to the DE on inspiring this change in policy. Now all we need is for SIU to include the numbers of students in staff in quarantine (for coming into contact with those with COVID). The two of them together will tell us how well reopening is going. Let’s hope both numbers stay low.