95 UT-Austin Students Test COVID-19 Positive After Football Game

AUSTIN, TX — The University of Texas at Austin on Thursday added more than 100 cases of the coroanvirus retroactively after receiving self-reported cases and positive off-campus results from Austin Public Health among people with ties to the school, according to a school spokesperson.

All told, UT-Austin has reported 1,117 cases of the respiratory illness since March 1 — including more than 600 cases since the start of classes Aug. 26, according to data found on the UT COVID-19 dashboard. Reached by Patch, university spokesperson J.B. Bird added that of 1,198 students who were tested before the Sept. 12 football game against UT-El Paso, 95 tested positive for the COVID-19 virus and 1,103 screened negative.

"Some of the positive results were people with previously reported cases, already counted on our dashboard, who were still testing positive but are no longer infectious, which is a known result with some tests. 69 new results are being added to our COVID-19 dashboard," Bird wrote in an email.

Bird noted that when a sizable retroactive addition is made to the dashboard — as when Austin Public Health delivers a batch of results the university didn't have before or when the school posts a large group as happened with the football game testing — the university offers explanatory context on the announcements page or atop the dashboard itself.