Since the last week of December, data on COVID-19 at UF has been unattainable.
UF discontinued it’s dashboard on Dec. 31, pushing the university’s COVID-19 data to the Florida Department of Health. But FDOH couldn’t provide the numbers within five days.
Universities across the country established dashboards that tracked the spread of the virus on campuses in order to remain transparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other Florida universities like Florida State University and the University of Miami are maintaining these dashboards.
Since Screen, Test and Protect’s end, requests for updated data should be made through FDOH, which releases data on Fridays, said Ken Garcia, UF Health spokesperson. Testing completed at the UF Student Healthcare Center is still included in the Alachua County dashboard.
But Jeremy Redfern, FDOH press secretary said he isn’t sure why requests for UF-specific data were directed over to FDOH.
FDOH does not have a dashboard for COVID-19 cases on campus like the one provided by the UF Health STP program, Redfern said. FDOH pulls data through the Center for Disease Control’s website.
The data is reported by county. The department doesn’t necessarily know when a person who tests positive is a UF affiliate — especially those who are getting tested at third party sites like CVS, Redfern explained.
Redfern has been in contact with the FDOH epidemiology department to see if COVID-19 data on the UF campus specifically can be tracked. As of Tuesday evening, there is no further information.
Contact Lucille Lannigan llannigan@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @llannigan.
Lucy is a senior journalism major and the metro editor for The Alligator. She has previously served as a news assistant and the East Gainesville reporter for the metro desk as well as the health and environment reporter on the university desk. When she’s not doing journalism you can find her painting or spending time outside.
