The University reported four new COVID-19 cases among students and three among faculty, staff and postdoctoral scholars for the week of April 26, according to the University’s COVID Dashboard.

The new numbers show a slight increase from last week’s two cases. Since last week’s report, five positive cases were added to the “total confirmed positive cases” for faculty, staff and postdocs. 

Citing consistently low positivity rates, Stanford recently announced that testing requirements will be relaxed slightly for graduate students, faculty, staff and postdocs. Graduate students will now be required to test only once a week, and testing for postdocs and faculty coming to campus will be voluntary. Undergraduates will continue to test twice weekly. 

In an email sent last Friday, Stanford Health Care Chief Medical Officer Niraj Sehgal and Stanford Children’s Health Chief Medical Officer Dennis Lund wrote that there were zero COVID-related deaths at Stanford Medicine over the past three weeks and zero COVID-related hospital admissions to Stanford Medicine since Apr. 25. They attributed these positive statistics to “the potent combination of vaccination, preventative measures (i.e., social distancing and masking) and testing.” 

Overall, cases in Santa Clara County have recently decreased. The county is currently in the orange tier, which allows some indoor restaurants, gyms and movie theaters to operate at limited capacity. Every Californian age 16 and older is now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

More information about eligibility and where to find vaccines can be found here. Sehgal and Lund wrote that they have “gone from not having enough vaccines for all [their] patients to not having enough patients for all [their] vaccines.” Stanford Health Care recently opened up first dose appointments for Stanford affiliates and their families, and the University recently announced that they will require all students coming to campus to be vaccinated for next fall quarter.