Through the testing and contact tracing efforts my office has coordinated with Rescue Me Wellness, in collaboration with pop-up test sites conducted by Pima County, a significant COVID-19 outbreak has been identified in student high rises west of the UA campus. In the limited testing we have been able to conduct, in Hub Tucson alone we have found 45 positive cases. With 490 residents living in a confined congregate setting, the likelihood is the virus is already spreading throughout the building at an alarming pace.
Some of the students we tested reported false negative results from the rapid result antigen test they took on the UA campus immediately prior to testing positive with the more accurate PCR test we administered. Acting on that false sense of security, they co-mingled with roommates and others not only inside the apartment building, but out in the community. While on site doing the testing, we observed residents pack into Uber cars, heading out for the evening. Pizza deliveries were common. Community spread is clearly tied to the conditions within not only Hub Tucson, but other high rises in that area.
During a Zoom meeting with Hub management, Pima County Health and Rescue Me Wellness which lasted over an hour on Saturday afternoon, I requested building management mandate 100% testing for all of their residents. They declined, citing restrictions in their leases. The UA can, and should exercise the leverage they have to compel testing by immediately issuing a directive that prevents any student from continuing to participate in any form of classroom instruction, including virtually, until they have produced a negative COVID-19 test result coming from a reliable PCR test, and that process must be repeated every 3 weeks until the end of the semester.
Pima County will issue orders to shut down swimming pools at the high rises and is exploring legal means by which individual rooms may be quarantined. Management must provide isolation rooms for students during their 14-day restricted movement time, and they must immediately close all common areas within each of the buildings. That will be problematic because each of these buildings has leased to nearly 90 percent building capacity. The City and the UA must make off-site isolation room options available if space does not exist within a given high rise.
The UA off-campus housing guide says, "living off campus provides you with the opportunity to be an active member of the wonderful and diverse neighborhoods surrounding the University." With that invitation into our community, the UA plays a significant role in addressing this public health outbreak. The wonderful and diverse neighborhoods surrounding campus would prefer to see all parties involved work collaboratively to control and contain this outbreak before residents of the towers become active in the broader community.
Sincerely,
