Just when you think it’s bad, it gets worse.
Quinnipiac University sees its cases rise for a fourth consecutive week, bringing the grand total up to 40. According to the university’s COVID-19 dashboard, the school currently has 15 students in isolation.
An email sent to students Friday said the school has reported an additional 10 new positive cases since they last updated on Wednesday, and they’re all off-campus students. Quinnipiac has been consistent with Connecticut and the rest of the nation the last two weeks, experiencing an 80 percent increase in the average number of daily new cases.
This week saw Quinnipiac’s case total increase by about 15 with a 0.7 positivity rate. That’s a 0.5 percent increase from the school’s overall rate of 0.2 since Aug. 5.
Though there has been a recent spike, the university’s been doing a lot better than they were initially projected to do. The targeted testing model the school uses predicted that by Oct. 23, there would be 109 confirmed cases, yet there’s only been a total of 40 cases since Aug. 5, according to the email sent to students. Still at yellow, the current risk level at Quinnipiac remains the same.
Since transitioning into phase three two weeks ago, Connecticut is experiencing a major spike, now up to 66,052 total cases. That’s an increase of 679 cases from yesterday’s update. The total COVID-19 affiliated deaths is now up to 4,577, an increase of 8 from yesterday. Hospitalizations seem to be stabilizing, only increasing by one since yesterday’s report.
In terms of Connecticut counties, Fairfield leads the pack with over 22,322 cases. Right behind Fairfield is Hartford and New Haven with 17,062 and 16,073 total cases, according to the state’s COVID-19 data portal.
There’s only one month left until Quinnipiac students return home for the holidays and finish the rest of the semester online. It remains to be seen if they will be able to even last that long.