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UGA says COVID-19 numbers on campus down 70%

ATHENS, Ga. — Officials at the University of Georgia just put out a new report that shows their cases of COVID-19 are down 70%.

As of Tuesday, Athens-Clarke County was the only county in north Georgia in deep red on the Georgia Department of Health cases map, meaning the highest number of recent cases.

Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes is at UGA, where White House officials still think college students need to stop gathering in groups.

Campus Dean Dr. Shelly Nuss is very involved in the plan to keep students healthy on campus during the pandemic. Nuss said that when COVID-19 case numbers at UGA spiked about a month ago, officials had to change some things.

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“We densified of classrooms, put plexiglass up where necessary to decrease the spread of the virus,” Nuss said. “So we really put in a multi-tiered plan in addition to a testing plan. We feel like we’ve made some major strides over the last week and a half.”

Some students are questioning the reported numbers, but Nuss said the university is being open about the case numbers.

“We’ve been completely transparent with all the numbers that we are sharing,” Nuss said. " We’re showing the full display of results that we are getting from our community."

The White House also released a report that said Georgia numbers are going down, but they also said they have seen gains reversed in other states due to university spread.

“Georgia officials need to increase testing and isolation to prevent spread from students to local communities,” White House officials said.

Nuss said UGA is doing most of the things the White House recommends, but ultimately, people have to avoid pandemic fatigue.

“We’ve got to keep up the momentum that we feel like we have here at the university so that this trend, the downward trend of the tests, continues over the next several weeks,” Nuss said.

One of the things UGA is not doing is increasing the time infected students have to isolate.

Some students told Fernandes they have a big problem with that.