University of Tennessee chancellor says COVID case on a slight rise

University of Tennessee Chancellor Donde Plowman says student participation in weekly saliva testing for COVID has declined every week on campus while cases continue to have slight increases including 108 students being treated as of Friday.

“I understand we are all ready for this pandemic to be behind us and we are so close. But until we have higher participation rates or a critical mass of vaccinations which we are working on we cannot let our guard down,” Plowman said in her weekly update.

The chancellor also said that requests from residence halls to lift temporary restrictions on visitation cannot be lifted until the overall health status of the Knoxville campus shows improvement.

Data collected by UT health officials shows the average daily case count has increased from 8 to 10 in the past week. Plowman said 363 students and workers are now in isolation on and off-campus.

(IMAGE: University of Tennessee Knoxville)