BYU student Sam Cosgrove tested positive for COVID-19 and said he has no idea how he contracted it.
Cosgrove, who lives in a house south of campus, announced on Twitter on April 2 that he was tested positive and that his roommates are all getting tested.
BYU has nine reported COVID-19 cases as of April 3. All nine cases are people who work at BYU or are enrolled in classes. BYU updates this number on its website but does not release names or locations of those who test positive.
According to BYU, the first reported case of COVID-19 on campus was announced in a campus-wide email sent out on March 23. The university said the student had returned home at that point and the landlord of the off-campus housing where the student was living had already contacted other tenants.
Those who test positive are encouraged to self-report using a form located on BYU's website. This form asks if they have tested, when they were tested, whether they tested positive, if they are living in on-campus housing and all the areas they have been on campus within two weeks prior to showing symptoms.
Cosgrove said his symptoms are minor. 'I've had allergies worse than this,' he said. 'That being said, I am lucky and have no preexisting conditions.'
His symptoms include being short of breath after doing simple tasks, occasional coughing, fever, chills, aches and headaches.
Cosgrove went to Intermountain Healthcare's Springville Clinic in Springville, Utah, to get tested. The test is a nasopharyngeal swab, much like a large Q-tip, that goes all the way to the back of the throat through the nose, a process Cosgrove described as painful and invasive but not awful.
Since his test, Cosgrove has been in quarantine. 'I feel I am coping well. I just do my school, work and watch Grey's Anatomy in my spare time,' he said. 'However, school has been difficult and my professors have been accommodating.'
Both BYU and the Utah Department of Health have reached out to Cosgrove since he self-reported his positive diagnosis on their websites. Both questioned him about who he been in contact with and where he had been over the past two weeks.
The Utah Department of Health keeps a daily update of COVID-19 cases. The numbers are categorized by county, age, gender, deaths, hospitalizations and test result.
BYU and the Utah Department of Health continue to update the number of cases in the community, but remain quiet on the location and identification of those infected.