Editor's Note: This story is updated weekly with new data. It was last updated on May 10.
American University reported 100 new coronavirus cases in the University community from the final week of the semester week of classes on May 3. This brings the total confirmed cases for the spring semester to 1,485.
This week's data comes almost a month after the University announced it would be reinstating its mask mandate April 12. Officials cited rising cases in the AU community and D.C.
The 161 cases also reflect a steady increase since the University originally lifted the mask mandate March 21.
AU administered 923 tests between May 2 and May 8, according to the University's COVID-19 dashboard. This week's data reflects an on-campus test positivity rate of 7.26 percent. Additionally, this week's data contains one of the lowest amounts of total tests administered all semester, as many students had already left campus for the end of the semester.
AU’s weekly percentage of positive tests is calculated using only on-campus tests, according to Matthew Bennett, AU’s chief communications officer. That means that this week's reported positivity rate is based on 67 of the 100 positive tests listed.
“Self-reported positive tests that were taken off campus (with a primary care provider, for example), are not part of the positivity rate,” Bennett wrote in an email to The Eagle on Sept. 14. “Since we don’t know how many total tests were taken off campus, there is no way to compute the rate inclusive of self-reported positives.”
One member of the community was hospitalized by the pandemic during the week of March 7 to 13. No hospitalizations have been reported this week. That data is self-reported, according to the dashboard.
The dashboard is the same one AU utilized in the fall. At the end of the fall semester, on-campus cases spiked due to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus and more than 200 community members tested positive in the final week of testing.
The DC government has not reported data of new case counts of COVID-19 or deaths in the district to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's coronavirus dashboard since April 27.
