54 students have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last week , raising the cumulative rate of student positive tests to 0.16%, according to Stanford’s Monday COVID-19 dashboard update. New cases among Stanford employees, including faculty, staff and postdoctoral scholars have more than doubled since December.
On Friday, the University announced that 43 students had tested positive, meaning that 11 new cases have been reported in the last three days. The University attributes the uptick generally to students initially arriving on campus who test positive, not to community spread. All 54 students are currently in isolation on campus.
But according to an email to students from Graduate School of Business (GSB) Dean Jonathan Levin, large gatherings off campus also contributed to the case count.
The news comes as Santa Clara County continues to experience a surge in cases. As of today, the county’s test positivity rate is 4.58%, according to the dashboard. However, the county’s 7-day average test positivity rate sits at 9.4% according to the county dashboard. University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Provost Persis Drell cited the county’s struggle with COVID-19 as a part of the rationale for cancelling the return of most frosh and sophomores to campus for winter quarter in an email sent to students on Saturday.
45 faculty, staff and postdoctoral scholars also tested positive for coronavirus, and 7,102 tests were administered to University employees in the last week. 25 of the 45 employees who tested positive were on campus within the last two weeks, according to the dashboard. Since August, 104 faculty, staff and postdocs have tested positive.
California as a whole now has an overall positivity rate of 7.46%. Intensive care unit (ICU) capacity in the Bay Area region, which includes Santa Clara County, is at 0.7%, according to the state’s tracker, and the area is under a regional Stay Home Order until further notice. Once ICU capacity hits 0%, the region would then activate its surge capacity of additional ICU beds.
This article has been updated with Santa Clara County’s 7-day average test positivity rate.
Contact Benjamin Zaidel at bzaidel ‘at’ stanford.edu.