COVID-19 cases declined drastically at Tufts as students left the Medford/Somerville campus for spring break. The university reported seven new cases on Friday and 21 in the week before. The average number of COVID-19 cases on the Medford/Somerville campus has gone down around 72% over the past week with an average of three students testing positive per day. There were 49 individuals in isolation on Friday. This data may be skewed by the significantly decreased campus population over the past week.
While Medford cases have been on the decline, Somerville, Middlesex County and Massachusetts are seeing a slight rise in COVID-19 numbers. The average number of positive tests in a week went up by around 6% in Somerville, 40% in Middlesex County and 18% in Massachusetts on Friday.
Tufts recently announced plans to lift several COVID-19 restrictions gradually throughout several weeks in April. Most significantly, surveillance testing will be replaced with symptomatic testing and indoor masking will be optional by the third week of April. Despite plans to loosen restrictions, Tufts will maintain its ‘testing-out’ policy, requiring students to receive a negative COVID-19 test to leave isolation. The university also noted that restrictions will only be lifted if the rate of cases remains low following spring break.
For more details, visit the Daily’s COVID-19 dashboard.
