ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia's most well-known university - and one of the largest - has issued a response to hundreds of faculty members who called reopening its campus "unwise" amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Greg Trevor, who serves as the interim senior executive director of marketing at the University of Georgia provided a statement to 11Alive on Saturday.
"It is easy to criticize a plan without having to operationalize one for a community of 50,000 faculty, staff, and students," it begins. "The surveillance and testing plan put in place by the University of Georgia was thoroughly vetted and recommended by the members of our Medical Oversight Task Force."
The response goes on to say that includes the deans of the College of Public Health, the College of Veterinary Medicine, the medical partnership with Augusta University and the executive director of the University Health Center.
Those words follow a letter to the editor that was sent to the campus paper, The Red and Black, which included more than 300 signatures. The letter asserted that "regardless of the precautions taken by the University on campus ... a widespread outbreak of COVID-19 is inevitable."
The column points to the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Michigan State University, and the University of Notre Dame as examples of this with each suspending in-person instruction recently.
The letter then pointed to Georgia's then COVID case rate which was highest in the nation at the time. It also pointed to simulations run by UGA's own Center for Ecology of Infectious Diseases that suggested hundreds of students would arrive at the campus who already have the virus.
However, Saturday's response suggests UGA's rigorous plans were designed to help keep a massive spread from occurring - in no small part because of the speed of the testing.
"The nasopharyngeal swab testing being conducted for free by UGA on campus is one of the most reliable forms of testing available," the letter reads. "UGA is able to analyze specimens and provide accurate results within 24 - 72 hours."
The university expects 300 to 360 tests per day which will allow it to monitor the prevalence of COVID-19.
"If we see increases, we can determine hotspots and identify areas for intervention," Trevor wrote.
He also pointed to a new method for reporting cases that will help in establishing cases and others who may be impacted.
"Those who test positive in the UGA community are required to report those results through UGA’s notification tool and are asked to provide names and information of those with whom they have come into close contact," the response reads.
It adds that the Georgia Department of Public Health, under law, is responsible for contact tracing, "but the information provided by UGA as a partner in the process gives their contact tracers a headstart in this important work."
In the meantime, the response suggests that the university will continue to take other comprehensive measures that have been common there and elsewhere throughout the pandemic such as social distancing a mask mandate in buildings.
However, the response also comes on the same day that another well-known Georgia institution deals with an increase in cases. Several miles to the west in Atlanta, Georgia Tech has reported a cluster of cases impacting a local fraternity based near campus.
Georgia Tech also implemented a plan meant to catch COVID cases as quickly as possible and isolate those who become ill. Overall, the campus confirmed 33 new cases for Saturday, not including those who may have come into contact with them who have yet to be tested. They've had roughly 250 confirmed cases since April though classes only recently returned.