Less Than 1% of COVID-19 Tests are Positive at UNL, Creighton Reporting 95% Vaccination Rate

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is requiring COVID-19 testing for students, faculty, and staff to return to in-person activities this semester.

From the recent mandatory testing, just under one-percent of the tests were positive.

Deb Fiddelke with the university said this year’s testing is hard to compare to last school year.

“I would say it’s what we hoped,” she said. “It’s hard to compare to last August because we didn’t do (required) re-entry testing. It is slightly lower than the re-entry testing that we had in the spring.”

The seven day rolling average as of late last week indicates 28 positives per day on campus, according to UNL’s COVID dashboard. The dashboard shows 271 positive tests since August 12.

UNL is requiring those not vaccinated or people without their vaccine information on the school’s vaccine registry, to get weekly tests.

“This allows us to quickly see if we’re getting additional spread on campus,” she said, “and to isolate those cases and hopefully prevent any large outbreaks on campus.”

Fiddelke said there were people who waited until this week to get tested, but the university feels good about the turnout from the UNL community.

Creighton University requires its students to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and said 95 percent are fully vaccinated so far.