Active COVID-19 cases increased by 21 to a total of 107 within the ASU community, according to a University update Monday night.
Though the University encouraged students to be safe over the Halloween weekend, the Tempe Police Department issued 20 party citations, 12 of which were confirmed to be ASU student-related, from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1, a Tempe PD spokesperson said in an email.
Last weekend, five party citations issued were related to ASU students.
Since Thursday's update, active cases among students rose by 17 to a total of 91, while employee active cases increased by four to a total of 16.
There are 86 active cases among students off campus in the metropolitan Phoenix area, and five students are in isolation on the Tempe campus. No active student cases are on the Downtown Phoenix, West or Polytechnic campuses.
ASU has reported 2,178 cumulative cases within its community since Aug. 1. Students make up 2,115 of those cumulative cases, and employees make up 63. Cumulative cases increased by 49 since Thursday when the University reported there had been 2,129 cumulative cases.
According to the update, 2,343 students and 175 employees who had previously tested positive for the coronavirus have been cleared to return to campus.
The University has collected approximately 106,022 tests from students and employees since Aug. 1. According to the update, it has tested 74% of on-campus students and 34% of off-campus students.
The ASU community's percent positivity rate is roughly 2%, using the cumulative number of positive results as the numerator and the total number of tests collected as the denominator. The percent positivity rate represents the level of transmission of the virus and shows if the testing is effective.
Random test results from Oct. 24-31 show two on-campus students tested positive, resulting in a positivity rate of 0.3%. Off-campus students who were selected for random testing returned 18 positives, resulting in a positivity rate of 1.09%. Two employees tested positive through random testing during that period, resulting in a positivity rate of 0.34%
The Arizona Department of Health Services reported 666 new cases and one new death Monday. Data from The COVID Tracking Project shows that Arizona is seeing an increase in new cases, deaths and current hospitalizations in recent weeks.
Internal tracking of ADHS ZIP code data of the ZIP codes with ASU campuses — 85281, 85004, 85306 and 85212 along with the 85282 ZIP code in Tempe — done by The State Press shows cumulative cases have increased by 135 since Thursday. Last weekend, cases among all five ZIP codes combined rose by 87.
The biggest growth in cases since Thursday occurred in the two Tempe ZIP codes, with 44 new cases being reported in 85282 and 42 new cases in 85281. The 85212 ZIP code, where the Polytechnic campus is located, reported 29 new cases. The 85004 and 85306 ZIP codes combined reported 20 new cases reported in the four-day span.
The University does not specify if there have been any hospitalizations or deaths of ASU students or employees in its report.
Reach the reporter at wmyskow@asu.edu and follow @wmyskow on Twitter.
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Wyatt Myskow is the project manager at The State Press, where he oversees enterprise stories for the publication. He also works at The Arizona Republic, where he covers the cities of Peoria and Surprise.
