The director of the New River Health District says they haven’t found any evidence of COVID-19 variants at the region’s college campuses, but they can’t rule it out either.
Tuesday, Virginia Tech announced increased testing and other measures. University president Timothy Sands cited an increase in cases and the likelihood that variants could be present on campus.
During a weekly news conference with reporters Wednesday, Dr. Noelle Bissell said they haven’t seen any evidence yet. "We do not have any evidence of that at this point," Bissell said. "Can I tell you that we don’t have a variant in the area? No. We do know that the variants have been found in parts of the state. We do know that people travel. We do know that we have students who’ve come back."
Bissell said the state lab in Richmond conducts some surveillance testing for the new variants, but admitted most COVID-19 tests conducted by the health department do not go through that process.
She also said the health district has not seen any increase in the severity of symptoms in the college-age population. Sands' message on Tuesday referenced an increase in the number of students with moderate symptoms.
Given the uncertainty over the spread of more potent coronavirus variants, @VTSandsman reminds #Hokies to continue to #BeCommittedBeWell and not let their guard down. Beginning immediately, we will also double our prevalence and surveillance testing.https://t.co/HVlHjelsZe
— Virginia Tech (@virginia_tech) February 16, 2021
Bissell said the overall number of cases in the New River Health District has been trending down. Vaccination efforts are continuing with the health district receiving about 2,000 doses from the state health department each week.
***Editor's Note: Radio IQ is a service of Virginia Tech.
