The University reported 226 known positive COVID-19 cases within its community Monday, with 195 being students and 31 being faculty and staff.
The number of cases stayed relatively the same compared to last week's reported 227 cases.
Of the students who tested positive, 172 live off-campus in the metropolitan Phoenix area. There are 14 students who are in isolation on the Tempe campus and there are nine students in isolation across the Downtown Phoenix, West and Polytechnic campuses.
Since Jan. 1, the University has conducted a total of 142,762 tests, which is 5,507 more than last week's report. Since Aug. 1, the University has reported 907 positive COVID-19 cases, yielding a roughly 2.37% positivity rate.
From Sept. 20 to 26, the University collected 1,808 random saliva tests among students and employees. From the collected samples, 1,379 came from students and 429 came from employees. In total, 26 tests came back positive.
As of Monday, the Arizona Department of Health Services reported 1,959 new positive COVID-19 cases and no new deaths.
In June, Gov. Doug Ducey issued an executive order barring schools and universities from requiring face masks, testing or vaccines. Soon after, the Arizona Legislature passed the state budget which included policy decisions on mandates, reinforcing Ducey's order.
On Monday, an Arizona judge decided portions of the budget, which included the sweeping policy changes, were unconstitutional.
With the this ruling, schools and universities can now mandate masks, vaccines or testing.
With the latest decision, ASU could legally change its COVID-19 policy to require vaccines or testing, and it already mandates masks in certain spaces. The University never planned to require vaccines, but before the executive order, it did lay out different expectations for unvaccinated versus vaccinated students.
READ MORE: ASU will provide a third COVID-19 shot on case-by-case basis
Reach the reporter at azurborg@asu.edu and follow @alexandra_z9 on Twitter.
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