NC State University reports 3 new COVID-19 clusters on campus
N.C. State reported three new COVID-19 clusters Monday afternoon in a campus-wide alert, including one within the university’s atheltic department.
The clusters were reported in Carroll Residence Hall, the Standard Apartment Complex and N.C. State Athletics, though the school says not all of the positive cases are student-athletes.
Carroll Residence Hall is the first N.C. State dorm to report a cluster.
As N.C. State moved all of its undergraduate classes online Monday, the school announced 146 new coronavirus cases in recent days.
There have now been 457 COVID-19 cases at N.C. State since March — 416 students and 41 university employees.
Last week, N.C. announced that undergraduates would take all classes online for the rest of the fall semester, a move led by rising coronavirus case counts and clusters of cases within fraternity and sorority houses and others linked to off-campus parties.
UNC Chapel Hill was the first North Carolina school to revert to remote classes, and East Carolina University is the most recent.
According to N.C. State’s COVID dashboard, the rate of positive cases is increasing. Most of the 3,031 tests completed by the school have been done through N.C. State’s surveillance program, designed to study asymptomatic cases. There have been 162 cases found in 2,720 tests, a rate of 5.95%, up from less than 1% last week.
A quarter of all tests done through N.C. State’s Student Health Services department are coming back positive, with the school reporting 78 positive cases out of 311 tests, a percent positive rate of 25%.
N.C. State has now reported 14 clusters within the school’s community, most connected to the university’s Greek Village of fraternity and sorority houses. The state defines a cluster as five or more cases in close proximity.
Since students returned to Raleigh in early August, Wake County’s health department reports a sharp increase in cases among 18- to 24 year olds. Last Monday, Wake County reported 24 new cases. In four days, that jumped to 106 new cases on Aug. 21.
Currently half of N.C. State’s quarantine and isolation housing is full, with 86 of the university’s 166 units occupied. Off-campus, many more are in quarantine, as the school reports 687 people in isolation or quarantine.
This story was originally published August 24, 2020 at 6:21 PM.
