OXFORD, Miss. — The mayor of Oxford says more than 160 Ole Miss students recently tested positive for COVID-19, but those students aren’t reflected in the state’s coronavirus case report.
That has the mayor of Oxford wanting the state to make changes.
“We have expressed this concern at a state level but have not been provided a solution yet in state reporting,” Mayor Robyn Tannehill said.
Tannehill announced the Ole Miss COVID cases through her Facebook page, numbers not reflected in the state health department’s numbers for Lafayette County.
“It’s been our understanding that those positive cases, when reported to the Mississippi Department of Health, are instead counted in that person’s county of residence rather than in Lafayette County,” she said.
Tannehill says the numbers came from four urgent care clinics in Oxford and she’s taking steps to make sure the cases are accurately reported.
“We’ve created a reporting form that we will distribute to all local clinics, beginning today, requesting reporting of positive COVID-19 results from people who are not full time residents of Lafayette County,” she said.
The large number of positive students came as total surprise to Ole Miss leadership, which agreed the state’s procedure is confusing.
“As a result, that creates challenges in tracking the number of cases,” said Dr. Noel Wilkin, provost and ex-vice chancellor for academic affairs. “Of course, we maintain the numbers in our Health Center as well, but that requires students, faculty and staff diagnosed elsewhere to report that case to us and we’re asking all our students, faculty and staff to do that.”
We’re told the university is keeping its community aware of new COVID-19 cases and confirms nine students and one employee tested positive.
Marti Pasquale has a better understanding than most about how deadly the virus is. She’s an Ole Miss alum who lives in Italy and is back in Oxford for the summer.
She supports better reporting and is disappointed at how people in the states aren’t taking the virus seriously.
“We thought, ‘maybe people would learn from us’ since we were the first, outside of China, you know. For us it’s a little bit — some areas in the States have taken it a little ‘lighter’ than they should have,” she said.
Officials with the Mississippi Department of Health confirmed that cases are reported by county of residence.
They said the state had heard reports that there may be cases connected to Ole Miss students and athletes, and said the state was beginning to investigate, but had no data yet.
“We are working on this and will continue to track cases among the student body and will work with University Student Health,” State Epidemiologist Paul Byers said in a statement. “We will also be working with local providers to enhance these reports. If providers identify clusters or potential outbreaks they should report those to MSDH. It is important now that everyone, regardless of where you live or whether your area is identified as having increased to transmission, to wear a mask when in public, to limit large gatherings, and to social distance, staying six feet apart. Transmission can and do occur among these groups when not following these principles.
“We will continue to look in to this concerning report further.”
Ole Miss officials encourage students to follow social distancing guidelines and policies.
