The University is “not aware of any test results that have come back positive” for coronavirus among Stanford students, Associate Vice Provost for Environmental Health and Safety Russell Furr announced Sunday evening. 

While Furr’s announcement does not explicitly state that any tests came back negative, he called the update “welcome news.” 

Two undergraduates were tested for COVID-19 on Friday, according to an email from Provost Persis Drell that stated results were “expected” to be back within 24 hours. “Other students” have also been tested in addition to the initial two, Furr wrote.  

It is unclear how many students in total have been tested. Furr wrote that the University is “not in a position to provide ongoing updates” about the numbers of Stanford community members who have been tested. 

“To the extent we are aware of confirmed cases of COVID-19 among members of our community,” Furr wrote, the University will be in contact with Santa Clara County public health officials and “will be working to keep our community informed.” 

Despite this promise, some students felt University communication has been lacking.

“It is unclear to me from the wording of the recent update whether the university is planning to update us if members of the Stanford community actually do test positive for the virus,” said Anat Peled ’20, who is an Academic Theme Associate in Slavianskii Dom.

A delay in Sunday’s announcement caused concern for Kasey Luo ’21, she said.

“Because the University mentioned that the tests would take up to 24 hours to complete, I, along with many of my peers, found it concerning when there was no update soon after this time period had passed,” Kasey Luo ’21 said. “The increased circulation of contradictory speculations and rumors about the status of the tests following the 24 hours only heightened these concerns.”

University spokesperson E.J. Miranda declined to answer questions, writing in an email to The Daily that “all of the currently available information is in [Furr’s] message.”

Contact Julia Ingram at jmingram ‘at’ stanford.edu.