Nearly 50 Duke students test positive for COVID before spring semester starts
Duke University reported 76 positive COVID-19 cases last week after testing employees and students before classes begin Wednesday.
The university tested more than 18,000 students, who are required to get tested before moving into dorms on campus, taking classes or participating in on-campus activities. Students also got tested when they had symptoms and through surveillance testing or asymptomatic testing.
On Tuesday, Duke reported 49 students tested positive for COVID-19 in its weekly coronavirus testing results. The individuals who tested positive are in isolation and any potential contacts are quarantining.
Many students began moving back to Durham last week for the start of the spring semester. More than half of the students who tested positive recently returned to Duke from other states, including areas with a higher prevalence of COVID-19 than North Carolina, according to Duke.
The university administered more than 3,000 tests to faculty and staff last week and will continue mass testing throughout the spring semester.
Duke’s aggressive COVID-19 testing program was a critical piece of the university’s strategy to limit the spread of coronavirus throughout the fall semester. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also recognized Duke’s testing plan as a big part of why the university was able to offer in-person classes and keep students living in dorms last fall.
The university required students to get tested when they arrived at Duke and limited the number of students on campus to mostly freshman and sophomores. This spring, the testing plan will continue, but underclassmen and upperclassmen will be able to live and take classes on campus.
