After a week of low numbers, the COVID-19 data for the UNI campus once again spiked dramatically last week, with the semester’s highest positivity rate and case counts so far.

According to data released Friday, March 26 at noon, the 90 tests conducted from March 22-28 through the Student Health Center resulted in 14 positive cases, for a 15.56% campus positivity rate.

This is a substantial increase from the less than six cases and 4.76% positivity rate seen from March 15-21. 

However, the positivity rate may decrease slightly today when the Student Health Center updates last week’s data to include any tests conducted on Friday. Since the end-of-week updates only include data collected through Thursday, Friday numbers are added to the weekly total by noon on the following Monday and are therefore not included in the NI’s weekly analysis.

The university also reported six student self-reported cases of COVID-19 from March 22-28, with one from an employee. However, these self-reported cases may also be counted in the Student Health Center weekly totals and therefore, the numbers cannot be combined for a grand total.

In other pandemic-related news, UNI sent an emailed survey to the campus community on Thursday, March 25 to gauge interest in on-campus vaccinations. 

The survey helps identify campus community members who meet current vaccination guidelines due to an underlying medical condition as determined by the CDC. However, even those who do not have an underlying condition are still asked to complete the survey by March 31 in order to help the university and Black Hawk County prepare to host on-campus vaccine clinics. These clinics are tentatively planned for the spring to early summer and will be open to students, employees and immediate family members, depending on factors such as vaccine supply and distribution.

“We’re excited vaccines have become more widely available and we encourage everyone to get vaccinated at their first available opportunity,” the COVID-19 Response Team wrote.