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 19, Temple reported 158 active cases of COVID-19, including 156 among students and two among employees, The Temple News reported.
Temple recorded 88 new cases of COVID-19 this week, down from 102 new cases during the week of March 7, The Temple News reported.
The university recorded a seven-day average of 156 active COVID-19 cases as of March 19, The Temple News reported.
Fifty-five students living in university housing have tested positive for COVID-19, The Temple News reported.
Temple administered 8,041 tests so far this week and 8,788 tests the week prior, The Temple News reported.
The university recorded a 1.09 percent positivity rate among those tested this week, down from a rate of 1.16 percent last week, The Temple News reported.
“Our numbers have dropped this week and that is a good thing,” wrote Mark Denys, director of Student Health Services, in an email to The Temple News. “We need everyone to be diligent and follow the four pillars and avoid gatherings. We need everyone’s help to keep cases going down.”
Temple’s four pillars of public health include washing hands, physically distancing, monitoring health and wearing face coverings.
What happened with cases in Philadelphia?
Philadelphia recorded 350 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, up from 288 on March 10.
The city averaged 303 new cases per day from March 3 to March 17, according to city data.
The city averaged 275 new cases per day from Feb. 24 to March 10, according to city data.
The ZIP codes 19121 and 19122, which encompass Main Campus, have recorded 4,691 positive cases of COVID-19 and 82 deaths combined since March 2020, according to city data.
Philadelphia has recorded 124,489 cases of COVID-19 and 3,246 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.
As of March 19, Philadelphia has administered 418,826 first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and 160,907 people are fully vaccinated, according to the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.
Philadelphia, which is in Phase 1B of vaccine distribution, increased vaccine eligibility on Friday to include clergy members, residents with intellectual disabilities and staff at senior centers or day programs for people with intellectual disabilities, The Temple News reported.
Thomas Farley, the city’s health commissioner, warned residents on Friday not to let their guards down in following COVID-19 protocol because COVID-19 cases are rising in Philadelphia, according to a press release.
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