Duke University reports 22 new COVID-19 cases on campus during first week of classes

Duke University reported 22 new COVID-19 cases last week as students moved into residence halls and began in-person classes on campus.

Twelve students are in isolation and are being monitored by Duke Student Health. Ten faculty and staff members who tested positive last week were told to isolate in their homes.

Meanwhile, 67 other students are in “precautionary quarantine” because they may have been exposed, the university announced Monday. And five other faculty or staff members identified through contact tracing were asked to quarantine.

The university, which required all students to get tested for coronavirus, has reported a total of 37 cases on campus since Aug. 2, mostly among students.

Duke has not switched to online classes, as UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State University and East Carolina University announced after starting the fall semester. Each of those universities made the change after spikes in cases on campus, including outbreaks in dorms and clusters in Greek Life housing.

As of Monday, UNC System universities have reported more than 1,500 students tested positive for COVID-19 since last spring, according to The News & Observer.

Mass testing at Duke

Duke administered 5,028 tests to students, faculty and staff from Aug. 15-21, including the initial tests for incoming graduate and professional students who start classes later this month. More than 2,600 students and faculty were tested as part of Duke’s pooled survey testing program that began last week, according to the university. Two of the new student cases were found through the pooled survey program and 10 were new students arriving to campus.

Five of the cases among faculty and staff were individuals who have been working remotely since March and have not been to campus since then.

Last week, 10 students who previously tested positive and were in isolation were cleared to return to campus and seven Duke employees who tested positive were cleared to return to work. Nearly 50 students and employees who had been asked to quarantine were also cleared.

Duke students returned to campus to take mostly online classes starting Aug. 17. The university began mass testing of students, faculty and staff on Aug. 2 in preparation for the fall and has completed nearly 11,400 tests.

On Duke’s COVID-19 dashboard, the school reports 10,351 students have been tested with 23 positive results. The university reports 14 cases among faculty and staff.

Students living on campus, which was limited to freshman and sophomores, were required to get a coronavirus test at Duke before moving into their dorms. The university reported four cases in its initial testing and then announced an additional seven cases on the first day of classes.

As of Monday, the state Health and Human Services Department reports 15% of the state’s total coronavirus caseload among people ages 18 to 24.

This story was originally published August 24, 2020 at 2:21 PM.