Cornell Adds -132 Cases to NYS Covid Threshold Count

DAY HALL—In an unusually sunny email, Vice President for Student & Campus Life Ryan Lombardi applauded the Cornell community, stating that in monday’s surveillance testing results, there were a total of 36 new cases, but -132 positive cases in the official NYS threshold count.

“Today, I am proud to say that the active Cornell coronavirus case count is down to negative 72,” wrote Lombardi. “Although we cannot let our masks down just yet, I am proud of our ability to hold firm as #OneCornell to stop the spread of this terrible disease.”

Although it is generally acknowledged that a negative test does not decrease the overall case count, Lombardi sounded optimistic about Cornell’s unprecedented total. Lombardi further clarified that the -132 new cases were not because of negative tests, but rather, some students on campus had results that were so negative, they effectively canceled out the new positives for the day, and then some, making a state-mandated transition to online classes nearly impossible.

“In order to fulfill Governor Andrew Cuomo’s stringent expectations of less than 100 cases over a two-week period justifying a transition to completely online instruction, we will have to remain very diligent,” Lombardi cautioned. “However, at our current rate of –0.47%, we are very well positioned to remain below this threshold. Let’s show the world what Cornellians can do!”

At press time, the Covid Dashboard still had not been updated to reflect the decrease in cases.

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