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Duke dealing with COVID-19 cluster just two weeks into semester

Just two weeks in to the Spring semester, and Duke students are dealing with a covid cluster.

Posted Updated

By
Lora Lavigne
, WRAL Durham reporter
DURHAM, N.C. — Just two weeks in to the spring semester and Duke students are already dealing with a COVID-19 cluster.

The outbreak centers around the Berkshire Ninth Street apartment complex near the university. It's also where five students are now in isolation.

Duke’s practices to handle the spread of COVID-19 on campus last semester have been recognized and used as a blueprint for many colleges nationwide. But numbers showing about 100 active cases within the first week of this semester are causing concern.

“We have identified 70 students that have tested positive, 30 faculty and staff," Duke Chief Communications Officer Michael Schoenfeld said. "Obviously that changes every day. Right now, we’re doing an average of about 30,000 tests per week."

Schoenfeld says that Duke's numbers have been impressive up to this point and that the university continues to reinforce positive behaviors.

"We have a positivity rate of about 0.2 to 0.3 at Duke, so obviously that is significantly lower than the general population," Schoenfeld added. "Again, we are reinforcing not only with our students, but with our entire community, the very basics that everybody should be adhering to."

Christina Wang, a junior at Duke, says she's not surprised by the cluster.

“I think it’s like almost expected since people are coming back from break and a lot more students are back on campus," Wang said. "But I think, it won’t take long for it to get under control, because last semester we had a small cluster as well and things were fine."

Students say the Duke community is doing its part to keep everyone safe and to minimize off-campus activities and parties.

“We’re living in a pandemic and there’s community spread everywhere. I don’t think anything really reflects back on any one particular location," said another student.

“We know there is no bubble around Duke, there is no bubble around Durham, there is no bubble around North Carolina and we all just have to stay in this together," Schoenfeld added.

Since the beginning of this month, 220 people have tested positive out of more than 60,000 tests.

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