Fox 19: UC students commended for their actions, safety to keep COVID-19 cases low

Chris Lewis, MD, vice provost for academic affairs at UC, spoke with a reporter from Fox 19 about an increase in COVID-19 cases on the UC campus. Lewis was able to provide some context.

"Considering we have a campus of 46,000 students plus and 12,000 plus faculty and staff, I would say that’s darn good,” explained Lewis, also an assistant professor of family medicine in the UC College of Medicine and a UC Health physician.

Since the pandemic began, the university says it has had 585 total positive COVID-19 cases. 567 of those cases were among the students while 18 were employees. But a recent rise in cases shows 184 infected students live on-campus and 383 who do not.

“We’ve seen a little bit of a pattern of a mid-week spike that we attribute to likely events, you know, off-campus on the weekends," explained Lewis. "People just tend to be more social.”

Watch the Fox 19 interview with Dr. Lewis.

Featured image of Chris Lewis, MD, taken by Colleen Kelley/UC Creative + Brand.