MIDDLEBURY — Addison County’s largest employer, Middlebury College, this week began publishing a report on its website that informs the community about the status of COVID-19 on campus.
Styled after the Vermont Department of Health’s online dashboard, which shows a variety of COVID-19 statistics for the state, Middlebury College’s COVID-19 Reporting Dashboard presents updated information on testing and cases on the Middlebury campus.
The Middlebury dashboard prominently displays the number of new positive cases and the number of active cases of the disease caused by the coronavirus. It also shows the number of active student cases, active employee cases, number of people currently being isolated (those who have tested positive), and number of contacts under quarantine (people who have been in contact with a positive COVID-19 case, but not yet tested positive).
As of Friday, the number for all of those situations is zero.
The dashboard also shows the cumulative number of students recovered — zero on Friday, since none have been reported sick — and number of employees who have recovered — 1 as of Friday. Data on the Middlebury College dashboard stretches back to April 1.
Being a dashboard, this college website also includes a large graphical element. A centerpiece of the college’s plan to welcome back students to campus is a regular testing program. When out-of-towners arrive, they are tested at a big center set up in Virtue Field House on Day 0 (the day they arrived) and Day 7. Then they will be tested on a schedule after that.
The graphical element on the dashboard is a chart that shows the cumulative test results with different colored lines for tests completed (a line that will continuously rise as more students and staff are tested, a line for total positive tests and a line for new positive tests. The two “positives” are both flat lines at the bottom of the chart.
If/when positive cases occur, the “new positives” line is the one that the phrase “bend the curve” would apply to. As the number of new cases goes up the dark blue line would go up, and as the number of news cases goes down the line would bend down. Officials, of course, hope that the line just stays flat throughout the fall semester.
Finally, the dashboard shows the number of COVID-19 tests administered on the Middlebury College campus, the number of positive/negative results and the number where there was insufficient information and the test is being administered again.
To view the dashboard, click here. 
On Friday the Middlebury College’s COVID-19 Reporting Dashboard showed that so far 373 tests have been negative, 5 have been inconclusive/will be retested, and zero have been positive. There are no active cases on campus and one employee has recovered.
The Middlebury dashboard was created by college information technology staff and went live on Tuesday. College officials said the expect that faculty, staff, students, parents and community members will turn to the website for information.
Data is updated when new test results are available, and will be posted by noon on those days.