University of Arizona campus, coronavirus

Before students return to dorms on the UA campus, they will have to test negative for the coronavirus.

 Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star

With some in-person classes starting Monday, University of Arizona officials say their testing, protective equipment and sanitation safeguards are in place to operate during the pandemic.

As of Wednesday afternoon, there were nine confirmed cases of COVID-19 among the 4,274 nasal-swab antigen tests administered since last Friday to students who are planning to live on campus. A negative test is required to move into the dorms.

With those initial results, Dr. Richard Carmona, the UA’s reentry task force leader, said the campus may be in a better position than other universities that have reopened but had to shut down campuses due to virus outbreaks.

“As you’ve seen around the country and a number of other universities, they’ve tried it for a week of two and they’ve had to shut down,” Carmona said. “They didn’t have the good numbers to start with like we have. Maybe they didn’t have the intensive programs that we have in place, but the point is we’re not taking anything for granted.”

The campus has been divided in 10 zones staffed with dedicated Facilities Management personnel. There are 600 staff members within the department.

“Additional staff are assigned to other UA locations throughout Tucson and statewide to make sure they have what they need,” the UA said.

Staff will be able to respond to clean and sanitize areas in an hour.

To further prevent the spread of the virus, the UA has put some of the following safeguards in place for the semester, which will begin with about 5,000 students attending select classes on campus beginning Monday. Most students will start the semester online.

The university has installed 1,329 sneeze guards; more than 3,000 touch-free paper towel dispensers in restrooms; more than 3,000 hand-sanitizer dispensers in 500 auditoriums and classrooms; and more than 5,000 spray bottles of disinfectant issued to faculty, staff and researchers.

The UA said the spray bottles can be dropped off with Facilities Management for refills every evening.

In campus buildings, Facilities Management has installed air filters rated MERV-13.

MERV, or Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value, when rated at 13 or higher, are efficient at capturing airborne viruses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We’ve put MERV filters from 7 to 8, we’ve increased those to 13s in our campus buildings, so we’re filtering out the germs and the viruses as best as possible,” said Chris Kopach, assistant vice president for Facilities Management.

When someone does become infected, the UA said a free exposure notification app called COVID Watch allows users with COVID-19 to anonymously notify others who may have been exposed.

The app anonymously shares information through Bluetooth to identify other nearby devices, then allows an infected person to send an anonymous alert to other app users whom they may have exposed to the virus.

“It’s helping users understand when they’re at higher risks for being exposed and giving them optimized dates for testing,” President Robert Robbins said about the app.

Those infected students will be sent to one of 600 isolation rooms the UA has secured.

“We feel that we’ve done a very good job in creating an environment that’s receptive to our students, staff and faculty returning in increments we have explained, but they’ve got to adhere to those public health practices,” Carmona said.

The UA plans to ramp up the number of in-person classes over the coming weeks if there are no large outbreaks.

Mask wearing will be required on campus as well as social distancing.

Become a #ThisIsTucson member! Your contribution helps our team bring you stories that keep you connected to the community. Become a member today.

Contact Star reporter Shaq Davis at 573-4218 or sdavis@tucson.com

On Twitter: @ShaqDavis1