Missouri State reports eye-popping COVID-19 numbers

As students matriculate back onto college campuses, Missouri State University has reported an alarming number of COVID-19 cases amongst enrolled students, faculty, and staff. As reported by multiple outlets Monday, the university confirmed it had 141 new cases over the past seven days, in addition to 38 the week prior.

The Kansas City Star noted that testing between the dates of Aug. 17-23, amongst 251 individuals on-campus, and an unspecified number off-campus produced the 141 total — also confirmed by the university's website. The Star article also detailed that three who tested positive were faculty, to go along with one staff member. and further mentioned that the university requires that masks are mandatory while indoors on campus.

Springfield's KY3 News reported on Monday that Missouri State's COVID response team is currently working with local health officials to contact-trace as many known-positive cases as possible.

"Missouri State has established a COVID‑19 Response Team that works closely with the Springfield-Greene County Health Department to assist with contact tracing for individuals affiliated with campus who have tested positive," the university's website reads. "The response team relies on county public health experts to determine protocols for how to handle positive tests of faculty, staff or students. These protocols guide the assessment of positive cases and identifying those who require quarantine."

In total, the state of Missouri is nearing 76,000 confirmed COVID cases.