The COVID-19 positivity rate for the UNI campus once again rose last week, according to data released Friday, April 2 at noon.

The 82 tests conducted from March 29-April 4 through the Student Health Center resulted in 17 positive cases, for a 20.73% campus positivity rate.

Although this is the same number of positive cases recorded from March 22-28, fewer tests were conducted (82 last week as compared to 106 the previous week), generating a higher positivity rate than the 16.04% seen from March 22-28.

The positivity rate may change 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 eight student self-reported cases of COVID-19 from March 29-April 4, with three from employees. 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, the university continued to urge the campus community to complete the survey gauging interest in on-campus vaccinations. The survey closed Friday, April 2.

Beginning today, Monday, April 5, Governor Kim Reynolds has promised that the State of Iowa will have enough vaccines to expand eligibility to all Iowans 16 and older.

During her weekly news conference on Wednesday, March 31, Reynolds said that the state is working with the Board of Regents to get as many college students vaccinated as possible before the conclusion of the semester. She also said that Iowa will soon receive more doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which only requires one dose for full efficacy, and that those vaccines will be sent to Iowa universities, beginning with Dordt College, Des Moines Area Community College and the University of Iowa.

UNI will be working with the Black Hawk County Health Department to host “what we hope will be a series of successful vaccination clinics on campus,” according to the COVID-19 Response Team.

“As Black Hawk County Health Department allocates vaccines to UNI, we will keep you posted with news regarding availability and the parameters for distribution to our community,” the response team wrote on Thursday, April 1.