Northwestern reports 36 COVID-19 cases, highest ever weekly case count

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Daily file photo by Binah Schatsky

The Donald P. Jacobs Center will close its asymptomatic testing center Dec. 21 to Jan 2.

Isabelle Sarraf, Campus Editor

Northwestern reported 36 new cases of COVID-19 from Oct. 16 to 22 — the highest ever weekly case count according to the University’s COVID-19 Dashboard.

Out of the new cases, 28 cases were marked as students, five were staff and six were faculty. (Though the dashboard shows 39 cases for the week, University spokesperson Jon Yates said three have been double-counted because they belong to two categories, i.e. someone who is both a student and staff member.)

The University’s COVID-19 positivity rate from Oct. 15 to Oct. 21 was 0.57 percent overall and 0.4 percent among undergraduates. The University received about 5,000 tests this past week, marking over 35,000 cumulative tests since Aug. 15.

“We currently have no major clusters of COVID-19 cases,” Yates said. “Instead, we are seeing small cases of transmission between groups of students.”

Last week, the Kellogg School of Management decided to make all full-time MBA courses remote for two weeks, from Oct. 19 to 30, following a rise in COVID-19 cases traced to several off-campus student gatherings. 

The uptick in positive cases, Yates said, coincides with an uptick in cases throughout the area. According to Yates, the overall total case count is not entirely driven by positive cases at Kellogg.

Since Oct. 16, he said there have been nine COVID-19 cases among Kellogg faculty, students and staff — eight of those being students. Compass Group announced Tuesday that two subcontracted NU staffers who work at the Kellogg Global Hub had tested positive.

The University has yet to publicly disaggregate data based on factors like school location or addresses associated with specific outbreaks.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @isabellesarraf

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