Duke reports 126 coronavirus cases this week, less than half of last week’s total

There were 126 total positive COVID-19 tests for the period from Aug. 30 to Sep. 5, according to Duke’s Covid Testing Tracker. There were 24,070 total tests administered, giving a positivity rate of 0.52%.

Only 105 students and 21 faculty and staff tested positive for COVID-19 this week. The positivity rate for students was 0.47%, and the rate for faculty and staff was 1.07%.

As of Monday afternoon, there are 168 active cases at Duke, according to the tracker. The tracker does not currently contain information about the number of individuals in isolation and/or quarantine. 

During the week from Aug. 23 to 29, 304 undergraduates, 45 graduate students and 15 employees tested positive for COVID-19, marking the worst-ever week of COVID-19 at Duke. 

In an Aug. 30 email to Duke students, faculty and staff, University administrators announced new gathering, masking and learning policies. Masks are required indoors and outdoors unless the individual is eating or drinking, exercising alone or “otherwise not around others,” and indoor group seating has been suspended at dining locations on campus.

As of Aug. 30, 98% of students and 92% of employees were fully vaccinated, according to a University press release. Michael Schoenfeld, vice president of public affairs and government relations, wrote in an email to The Chronicle in late August that “the majority of individuals who have had positive tests have been fully vaccinated.”

Professors with in-person classes are not required to provide virtual accommodations for students who miss class because they are in quarantine, according to an Aug. 27 email to Trinity College of Arts & Sciences faculty and staff from the Office of the Dean of Trinity. 


Anna Zolotor profile
Anna Zolotor

Anna Zolotor is a Trinity senior and recruitment chair for The Chronicle's 118th volume. She was previously news editor for Volume 117.

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