University of Oregon sees rise in COVID-19 cases with fall term start – The Register-Guard

The University of Oregon isseeingan increase in COVID-19 cases in students and staff since classes returned for fall term.

Casenumbers first started going up again two weeks before the start of term, during the week of Sept. 13when the UO saw 17 new cases, according to its case tracking dashboard. The following week, there were 28 new cases.

The first week of schoolsaw a major jump to 46new cases. Last week, the week of Oct. 4, cases jumped to57.

The vast majority of these cases are in off-campus students, followed by on-campus students and employees. In the first two weeks of classes, nearly 76% of thecases were identified in students living off campus.

Theweek of Sept. 27, when classes started, 37 cases were identified in students living off campus.There were six cases of on-campus student cases and three cases in employees.

The majority of off-campus cases continuedto grow the week of Oct. 4, with 41 cases. Fourteen students living on campus and two employees also tested positive that week.

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The dashboard is updated with weekly data every Monday, the website states.

The UO is requiring all employees and students to be vaccinated to participate in in-person classes, with few exemptions. Out of21,775 students, 96.3% are vaccinated. Of the5,205 employees, 95.3% are vaccinated, according to the UO's dashboard.

Those who are unvaccinatedand live in the residence halls must submit to weekly COVID-19 testing.

In contrast, Lane County as a whole is seeing a steady decline in cases after experiencing its worst surge of cases since the start of the pandemic. It peaked Aug. 15 with a seven-day average of 267 casesand has been decreasing since.

Lane County Public Health reported three deaths and 80 confirmed or presumptive cases of COVID-19 on Friday, raising the death toll to 293 and the countywide case count to 27,003.

There were519 people considered infectious, a 5% decline from Thursday's 549.

There were 51 hospitalized inLane County on Thursday, a 18% decrease over Thursday's62, with 15in intensive care and eight on ventilators.

Contact reporter Jordyn Brown at jbrown@registerguard.com or 541-246-4264, and follow her on Twitter @thejordynbrown and Instagram @registerguard.Support local journalism,subscribe to The Register-Guard.

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University of Oregon sees rise in COVID-19 cases with fall term start - The Register-Guard