40 Students, 16 Faculty/Staff Test Positive for COVID-19, Feb. 1-7

Duke University’s comprehensive COVID-19 testing and contact tracing program administered 20,020 tests to 10,434* students and 2,839 tests to 1,593 faculty/staff for the period Feb. 1-7, with a total of 56 positive results.

Among students there were 40 positive results, identified through surveillance testing for asymptomatic students as well as tests for those exhibiting symptoms and one final baseline/gateway test. The individuals who tested positive have been placed in isolation, while those identified as potential contacts have been placed in precautionary quarantine. The total positivity rate was 0.24 percent.

Summary of results from this period:

• 19,841 surveillance tests were administered to asymptomatic students who are living on and off campus with 23 positive results
• 178 tests were administered to students who reported symptoms or were identified through contact tracing with 16 positive results
• One baseline/gateway test was administered to a late-arriving student who will be living or studying on campus this semester, and that test returned a positive result.
• 2,685 surveillance tests were administered to asymptomatic faculty/staff who are working on campus this semester and have volunteered to participate in the testing program with 2 positive results
• 154 tests were administered to faculty/staff who reported symptoms or were identified through contact tracing with 14 positive results
• There was one cluster of five off-campus graduate students reported this week
• There has been no identified workplace or classroom transmission among faculty/staff
• All individuals who test positive are required to observe an isolation period until they are cleared to return to normal activities; contact tracing is underway to identify those who may have been exposed and ask them to quarantine
• Fifty students who had been in isolation and 182 who had been in precautionary quarantine were cleared to return to campus

Notes:

• All students who are placed in precautionary quarantine or isolation are monitored by Duke Student Health and have the ability to continue their coursework remotely
• Duke has more than 300 individual beds for students who live in Duke-provided housing and are identified for isolation or quarantine
• Students who live in Duke-provided housing will be isolated or quarantined in campus facilities; students who live off campus must isolate or quarantine in their residence.
• Tests administered to student-athletes are included in these results

Types of tests administered in this period:

1. Gateway/Baseline testing, which is an individual test required for all students upon arrival to campus and before they can move into Duke housing or take classes on campus. Large scale gateway/baseline testing has concluded for the semester and will only be conducted as needed for late-arriving individual students. 
2. Surveillance testing for asymptomatic students (on and off campus) and faculty/staff
3. Clinical testing for individuals who report symptoms or who are identified through contact tracing

More information on Duke’s COVID-19 testing program can be found at https://coronavirus.duke.edu/covid-testing/. Results are updated every Tuesday morning.

* The number of students tested was updated on Feb. 15.