Active COVID-19 cases continue to decrease within the ASU community, according to a University update Thursday.
The University reported a total of 384 active cases in Thursday's update, down from 450 active cases Monday.
There are 291 cases among off-campus students in the Phoenix metropolitan area, and 24 students are in isolation on the Tempe campus. There are two active cases on the Downtown Phoenix, West or Polytechnic campuses, with employees making up the remaining 67 active cases.
The University has reported 1,682 cumulative cases since Jan. 1, out of the 38,836 tests administered in that time period.
Out of the total cases since Jan. 1, students make up 84.1% of the cases, while employees comprise 15.9% of those cases. ASU has reported 6,187 cumulative cases since Aug. 1. The ASU community’s cumulative test positivity rate is roughly 2.8%.
The Arizona Department of Health Services reported 4,417 new COVID-19 cases across the state Thursday along with 176 new deaths.
In a press briefing Wednesday, Joshua LaBaer, executive director of ASU’s Biodesign Institute, said, “ASU has identified the first three cases of the U.K. variant in Arizona.”
Although the strain does not appear to be dominant in the community, the U.K. strain is “more transmissible” than the common variant of the virus seen in Arizona, LaBaer said.
Across the state, vaccination sites have been opened and have been administering doses to eligible residents.
One site is located at ASU's Tempe campus and Arizona's two state-run sites are partially run by University staff.
David Thomas, the chief executive officer of ASURE, a subsidiary of ASU’s Enterprise Partners, is among the leaders of the state-run vaccination sites at State Farm Stadium in Glendale and ASU’s Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
As of Thursday morning, the site at State Farm Stadium had vaccinated 7,600 people in the past 24 hours, resulting in a total of about 127,000 vaccinations from the site, Thomas said at the briefing.
ASU's Phoenix Municipal Stadium, which operates from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., will work to “scale up the Phoenix municipal site to about 2,500 (vaccines administered) per day,” Thomas said.
Weekend editor Piper Hansen contributed reporting to this article.
Reach the reporter at alcamp12@asu.edu or follow @Anna_Lee_Camp on Twitter.
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