Stanford reported 144 new COVID-19 cases among students and 73 new cases among faculty, staff and postdoctoral scholars for the week of April 11, according to the COVID-19 dashboard.

Case counts have increased by 20% among students and decreased by 1% among employees compared to the week before. According to the dashboard, 212 students are in isolation as of Monday, which is an increase from the 147 students reported last week.

The rise in student cases comes after the University lifted the Color COVID-19 weekly testing requirement for vaccinated students on April 11.

Stanford spokesperson E.J. Miranda did not comment on how these numbers compare with University expectations. “The dashboard contains the most current information available,” Miranda wrote in a statement to The Daily. 

Stanford continues to provide students with Color COVID-19 tests and require biweekly tests for unvaccinated students. While vaccinated students no longer have to test through Stanford’s surveillance system, the University continues to emphasize that vaccination, testing and masking can prevent serious illness, according to the dashboard.

The University’s seven-day positivity rate rose from 2.61% last week to 4.73% this week for students and fell from 0.89% to 0.74% for employees. The number of tests administered to students dropped from 4,604 the prior week to 3,045, according to the dashboard. The seven-day positivity rate for students is greater than Santa Clara County’s 2.6% rate and California’s 2.1% rate.

Many peer institutions are experiencing increases in student positivity rates. Harvard reported an increase to 1.7% positivity rate, and the University of California, Berkeley reported an increase to a 4.2% positivity rate. Stanford’s 4.73% positivity rate remains above that of Harvard and Berkeley.

Of the 73 new employee cases, 24 are included in the University’s testing count. The remaining 49 individuals tested outside the University’s surveillance testing system through rapid antigen tests or tested positive earlier than last week but just reported it to the University, according to the dashboard.

A total of 2,951 students and 1,977 faculty, staff and postdocs have tested positive through Stanford’s surveillance testing system since June 29, 2020, according to the dashboard.