COVID-19 Dashboard

Notification of confirmed cases of COVID-19 at Puget Sound are reported regularly on this page.

Number of Students Currently in Isolation or Quarantine on Campus

Updated Fridays by 4 p.m. (Pacific time)

Results of Testing by Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department’s Mobile Unit on Campus, Fall 2020

Updated within one business day of receiving test results

* A small portion of the September 23 count includes members of the public. Campus-specific count not available for this date.

Confirmed Positive Student Cases, All Sources**

Updated within one business day of receiving positive test notification.
Off Campus/Tacoma: At the time of diagnosis, the individual lives within the city of Tacoma but not in campus housing. The individual may have been on campus immediately prior to diagnosis.
Off Campus/Other: At the time of diagnosis the individual lives outside the city of Tacoma, in another city, state or country. The individual is unlikely to have been on campus immediately prior to diagnosis.

Confirmed Positive Faculty/Staff Cases, All Sources**

Updated within one business day of receiving positive test notification

** These figures are based on testing completed by both Counseling, Health, and Wellness Services (CHWS) or Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department’s (TPCHD) mobile units on campus, or TPCHD when testing was done elsewhere. Due to the increase in private labs administering tests and the possibility that not all cases are reported to CHWS, the information above may not include all cases of COVID-19 among Puget Sound community members.

CHWS, working in concert with the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, will contact Puget Sound community members who test positive for COVID-19 to learn more about their symptom onset, provide public health recommendations for isolation and testing, and conduct contact tracing for other Puget Sound community members. Guidance is provided directly to those individuals. The university will generally not send a mass email to students, faculty and staff members, and parents about each COVID-19 case on campus. 

Testing for the entire University of Puget Sound community is being offered throughout the fall semester by TPCHD in the Wheelock Student Center parking lot on Sept. 23, Oct. 2, Oct. 28, Nov. 28, and Dec. 9, between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Tests are free and open to the public. You do not need to be experiencing symptoms or have been in close contact with someone with COVID-19 to be tested. COVID-19 testing is also available in CHWS for all students. For additional information related to accessing COVID-19 testing, please visit the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department website or contact your primary care medical provider.

The university is also conducting surveillance testing. We are currently conducting weekly testing of 10% of students living on campus, using a nasal PCR test. Students are selected at random and tested on Tuesdays and Wednesdays outside the satellite respiratory clinic.

The health and well-being of the Puget Sound community is of paramount importance as the university navigates the COVID-19 pandemic. University of Puget Sound considers a range of factors in making decisions related to the university’s overall response to COVID-19, including the following:

• Proclamations and guidance issued by Gov. Inslee
• Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department guidance and recommendations
• CDC guidance
• COVID-19 prevalence on campus
• COVID-19 prevalence in Pierce County and across the state and nation
• Availability of testing, including testing material
• Percentage of students in isolation or quarantine and percentage of designated isolation and quarantine beds in use
• Percentage of faculty and staff members in isolation or quarantine
• Contact tracing capacity and effectiveness
• Access to personal protective equipment (PPE)
• Ability to meet social distancing criteria in physical spaces, such as classrooms

For more information about the university's response to COVID-19, visit pugetsound.edu/coronavirus.

To view information and statistics by county and statewide, visit the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department Coronavirus website and the Washington State Department of Health 2019 Novel Coronavirus Outbreak page. 

If you have questions related to this dashboard, please contact Kelly Brown, director of Counseling, Health and Wellness Services, at 253.879.1555.