Campus coronavirus roundup, 2.15.21: A flat week of case numbers

Coronavirus case numbers remained more or less flat across Idaho’s college and campuses last week.

And again this week, Brigham Young University-Idaho’s case numbers exceeded any other campus — although the Rexburg-based private college reported a slight dropoff from the previous week.

Here is this week’s campus coronavirus case roundup. 

Increasing

Boise State University. Increases in two key metrics.

Boise State reported 25 campus cases for the seven-day period ending Thursday, up from 18 the previous week. Twelve cases involved students who live off campus, seven involved students living on campus, and six involved faculty and staff.

In all, 2.1 percent of campus coronavirus tests came back positive, up from 1.5 percent the previous week.

Eight of Boise State’s 153 isolation beds were occupied, a number unchanged from the previous week.

Idaho State University. An increase, albeit slight. ISU reported 19 cases for a seven-day period ending Tuesday, up from 18 cases the previous week. Fifteen of the new cases involve students; 15 occurred on the Pocatello campus.

Several case clusters were under investigation: One in the Division of Health Sciences (three cases); one in the College of Technology (two cases); two in off-campus housing (two cases each).

College of Eastern Idaho. Six cases reported last week, five involving students and one involving an employee. CEI reported three cases the previous week, and has reported a total of 167 cases since August.

College of Western Idaho. CWI reported three new cases this week, after reporting no new cases the previous week.

Northwest Nazarene University. A slight increase: NNU reported two new cases last week, involving residential students, up from just a single case the previous week. NNU is tracking three active cases. On Thursday, 40 people were under stay-at-home directives.

Decreasing

BYU-Idaho. On Thursday, BYU-Idaho reported 61 active cases involving students and two active cases involving employees. On Feb. 7, BYU-Idaho reported a total of 67 active cases.

University of Idaho. A third consecutive week of decreasing cases: The U of I reported six positive test results for the week ending Feb. 5, down from eight cases the previous week.

At 1.1 percent, the U of I’s positive test rate continued to fall as well. This rate was 1.4 percent the previous week.

Flat

North Idaho College. Five students self-reported a positive test last week, unchanged from the previous week. Since July, 285 students and employees have reported a positive test.

Lewis-Clark State College. For the second successive week, Lewis-Clark reported no active cases Friday.

Other

College of Southern Idaho. Two cases reported for the week ending Thursday, both involving students on the Twin Falls campus.

The College of Idaho. No students or staffers are in isolation on or off campus. It also appears that the college has adjusted its overall case numbers downward. For the school year, the C of I has reported 104 positive test results. A week ago, that number stood at 111. 

Check Kevin Richert’s blog each Friday for a weekly roundup of statewide coronavirus trends.

 

Kevin Richert

Kevin Richert

Senior reporter and blogger Kevin Richert specializes in education politics and education policy. He has more than 35 years of experience in Idaho journalism. He is a frequent guest on "Idaho Reports" on Idaho Public Television and "Idaho Matters" on Boise State Public Radio. He can be reached at [email protected]

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