Seton Hall reported eight new cases of the coronavirus early Sunday morning, pushing the total number of cases the University has seen since the start of the semester to 37.
Seven of the cases, which were detected on Saturday, were reported in five off-campus and two on-campus students all connected to the South Orange campus. The eighth case was said to be an employee who was found to be infected on Friday through outside testing.
The University has now detected 30 total coronavirus cases during the month of October – 25 of which were found in the last seven days – accounting for 80% of all cases since Seton Hall reopened in August.
The University has now detected 30 total coronavirus cases during the month of October – 25 of which were found in the last seven days – accounting for 80% of all cases since Seton Hall reopened in August.
The numbers represent a drastic departure from a relatively tame first half of the semester, with the University reporting just three and four cases in August and September, respectively.
So far, 11 of the cases reported in the last week were said to be either related or detected through contact tracing.
The spike inside the University community has reflected a trend of growing cases statewide.
On Saturday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said via Twitter that the state had detected an additional 1,994 new coronavirus cases – the highest daily number since early-May, when cases were declining from record highs.
Essex County, where Seton Hall’s South Orange, Law School and Interprofessional Health Sciences campuses reside, reported 371 new cases on Saturday, the most of any other county in the state.
The nation as a whole has also seen increases in daily case counts, with the United States reporting a record 80,085 new coronavirus cases, eclipsing the previous record set on July 16 by over 9,000 cases according to a tally from The New York Times.
Nicholas Kerr can be reached at nicholas.kerr@student.shu.edu. Find him on Twitter @nickdotkerr.
