Stanford reported 205 new student and 487 new faculty, staff and post-doctoral scholar COVID-19 cases for the week of Jan. 10, according to the COVID-19 dashboard.
The new student and employee case counts are down 71% among students and 9% among employees from last week. 325 students are in isolation as of Tuesday, according to the dashboard, compared to approximately 600 students on Jan. 10.
More COVID-19 tests have been administered as students continue to return to campus, with 12,331 Color tests administered during the week of Jan. 10, compared to 10,234 tests the week before. Testing numbers do not include rapid antigen tests, which are administered to all students upon their arrival to campus, according to the dashboard.
Though the U.S. faces a testing shortage and last week’s technical difficulties experienced by Color slowed down testing in many locations, Stanford continues to provide students with tests and requires them to test weekly if vaccinated. Unvaccinated students must test twice a week.
Compared to the week of Jan. 3, Stanford’s seven-day positivity rate fell from 4.83% to 1.66% (among students), as more students returned to campus; the rate fell slightly from 2.86% to 2.60% among faculty, staff and postdocs. The seven-day positivity rate on campus remains lower than Santa Clara County’s 16.7% rate and California’s 21.1% rate.
Of the 487 new employee cases, 287 are included in the University’s testing count, and the remaining individuals tested outside the University’s surveillance testing system, such as through rapid antigen tests, or tested positive earlier than last week but just reported it to the University, according to the dashboard.
“While we are encouraged by the lower number of positive cases and the fact that fewer students are in isolation, we will continue to closely monitor the public health situation and the COVID variants,” wrote University spokesperson E.J. Miranda. Regarding winter quarter plans, Miranda directed The Daily to University president Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s Jan. 11 message to the community.
Peer institutions in their second week of the winter quarter are experiencing varying changes in student positivity rates. Dartmouth reported an increase to 10.03%, and Northwestern reported a decrease to 4.81% –– both above Stanford’s 1.66% positivity rate.