The number of COVID-19 cases at the University of New Hampshire has nearly doubled in the last week.
On Aug. 22, the university reported 23 positive cases of the virus across the three campuses. On Monday, the number had jumped to 44.
This increase comes only a couple of days after Kenneth Holmes, the vice-provost of UNH, sent an email to students condemning those who were caught partying off-campus. For weeks, health officials and healthcare executives have worried about what the new semester would mean for the spread of COVID-19 in New Hampshire.
Outbreaks across the country have been linked to campuses, as many universities have had difficulties stopping parties that flout social distancing guidelines.
The majority of cases have come from the Durham campus, which also has the most amount of students.
The Manchester campus still has not reported a single positive case of the virus. As of Sunday, two of the cases were at the law school in Concord.
School is continuing as scheduled in the Bedford School District after one student tested positive for COVID-19, triggering a contact tracing effort and cleaning at the school.
WMUR-TV reports the Riddle Brook School student in Bedford who tested positive is suspected to have contracted the virus at a sports camp in another town.
The student had been in the building on Friday. Half of the class was at the school, which is on a hybrid learning system.
The test for the student, who was asymptomatic, came back positive on Saturday. Families were notified Sunday with an email and voicemail.
“We worked with the school principal, the teacher and DHHS worked with the family to be able to determine who, if anyone, would have been within 6 feet for a cumulative time of 10 minutes within a 4-hour period,” Bedford School Superintendent Mike Fournier said.
None of the students at Riddle Brook met that criteria. Administrators believe protocols in place such as masks, distancing and reduced class sizes prevented further transmission.
As of Sunday, 7,254 people had tested positive for the virus in New Hampshire, an increase of nine from the previous day. The number of deaths remained at 432.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases decreased over the past two weeks, going from 22 new cases per day on Aug. 16 to 21 new cases per day on Aug. 30.
(Staff writer Teddy Rosenbluth contributed to this report.)