Clinic director notes drop in positive cases

In another of his weekly updates, Auburn University Medical Clinic Director Dr. Fred Kam on Tuesday spoke to a significant decrease in positive COVID-19 cases on campus for the past week and provided a cautious outlook for the week to come.

“It’s always a good thing to see the number of positive cases go down,” he said. “I'm cautiously optimistic.”

The university on Tuesday released its latest weekly positive case number – 109 – for Sept. 7-13. The previous week’s figure was 598.

“I was expecting that these numbers were to go down this week,” Dr. Kam said, but added that “ I want to be clear that it's not going to last forever. The expectation is because of Labor Day, we will see a slight spike. Hopefully it's a slight spike. We really don't know. We're preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.”

Dr. Kam said everything is dependent on people’s behavior going forward, with everyone continuing to follow proper safeguards of mask wearing indoors and outdoors, frequently washing hands, staying physically distant and conducting their daily health check.

“A commitment is contagious, and that's what we're looking for,” he said. “And if we can just stick to what has worked and continues to work, we will position ourselves towards finishing a very successful fall semester and getting ourselves ready and resilient.”

Dr. Kam said he is seeing that commitment throughout campus and is hopeful it will continue, setting the university on a good path for a successful football season and the continuation of the fall semester through Thanksgiving.

“There's so many things we're doing right,” he said. “People are wearing their mask. People are doing their health checks. People are trying to distance themselves and limit the size of a group. The faculty and staff are doing their part. We have been Auburn strong and continue to be committed to trying to make this a successful semester.”