Temple University COVID-19 briefing: March 12

Temple reported 132 active cases of COVID-19 among students and employees today.

Temple reported 132 active cases of COVID-19 on March 11 with 75 new cases this week. | ALLIE IPPOLITO / THE TEMPLE NEWS

Every week, The Temple News will provide a brief breakdown of COVID-19 trends and cases at Temple University.

Case counts include students and employees registered at any of Temple’s Philadelphia-area campuses, according to Temple’s active case dashboard.

Here’s what happened this week:

What happened with Temple cases? 

On March 11, Temple reported 132 active cases of COVID-19, including 126 among students and six among employees, The Temple News reported

Temple recorded 75 new cases of COVID-19 this week, up from 57 new cases during the week of Feb. 28, The Temple News reported

The university recorded a seven-day average of 112 active COVID-19 cases as of today, The Temple News reported.

Thirty-four students living in university housing are positive for COVID-19, The Temple News reported.

Temple has not identified a single event that caused the cases in university housing, wrote Mark Denys, director of Student Health Services, in an email to The Temple News. 

“The housing cases are spread throughout housing and are not attributable to a single event,” Denys wrote.

Temple administered 7,040 tests this week, down from 7,684 the week prior, The Temple News reported

The university recorded a 1.07 percent positivity rate among those tested this week, up from a rate of 0.74 percent last week, The Temple News reported.

“I am worried that after 12 months, COVID fatigue is setting in, the city is opening up more and people are not following the four pillars as diligently, and they still need to,” Denys wrote. “Unfortunately, the pandemic is not over and we all still need to follow precautions, even if you have had the vaccine.”

Temple’s four pillars of public health include washing hands, physically distancing, monitoring health and wearing face coverings.  

Philadelphia eased COVID-19 restrictions on March 1, permitting large outdoor venues to open with five percent capacity, allowing up to six people from different households to dine together outside and increasing the maximum occupancy at outdoor catered events to 100 people, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

What happened with cases in Philadelphia?

Philadelphia recorded 170 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, down from 267 on March 2. 

The city averaged 255 new cases per day from Feb. 24 to March 10, according to city data

The city averaged 255 new cases per day from Feb. 17 to March 3, according to city data.

The ZIP codes 19121 and 19122, which encompass Main Campus, have recorded 4,550 positive cases of COVID-19 and 79 deaths combined since March 2020, according to city data

Philadelphia has recorded 121,881 confirmed cases and 3,191 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.As of March 10, Philadelphia has administered 321,000 first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and 131,096 second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to The Temple News’ COVID-19 vaccination dashboard.

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