Coronavirus At Worcester Colleges: The Latest Data

WORCESTER, MA — Worcester has been in the high-risk category for coronavirus for one week, a rise in cases that somewhat coincides with the start of the fall semester at colleges and universities across the city.

But as cases across Worcester have been growing, there have only been a handful of cases at the city's seven major universities, according to the health dashboards kept by each school. Under 50 cases have appeared among students and staff, and one school has not had any cases yet.

Worcester remains a high-risk community for coronavirus spread, with an average of 8.9 new cases per day over the last two weeks, according to state health data released Wednesday evening.

Holy Cross so far has the highest number of cases over the past two weeks at 16. The school reported an off-campus party in August that led to 21 cases. The college warned that any students caught violating safety rules will be held accountable.

During a press conference on Sept. 16, city officials said that college students have not been a major problem — but the city has responded to some 400 complaints about students violating coronavirus rules, and has issued seven citations.

Here's where each school stood as of Wednesday:

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

WPI has conducted over 7,400 tests over the past seven days with two positive results. A total of 11 people have tested positive over the past 30 days against 31,108 tests. One student was in isolation as of Wednesday.

College of the Holy Cross

Holy Cross has conducted about 4,600 tests over the last two weeks with 16 positive cases — that includes 13 students and three staff members. Of those 16, ten have recovered. Holy Cross' seven day testing average was about 0.15 percent.

Clark University

The Clark campus was on alert level two on Wednesday, which means an "underlying threat of a global pandemic remains, but with low prevalence on campus." But the schools has not had any cases over the past 30 days, even with 31,833 tests.

Worcester State University

Worcester State has conducted 4,817 tests so far with four positive cases. Two of those four positives have been detected over the last week, according to the school's testing dashboard.

Becker College

Becker is holding the fall semester completely online. There is no on-campus housing for the semester.

UMass Medical School

The school has not updated its testing dashboard since Sept. 13, but has only had 12 cases dating back to June 28 with nearly 20,000 tests.

Assumption College

With 10,630 tests so far this semester, Assumption has had four positive results. Those cases are split evenly between students and staff. There are another 39 students in quarantine, and one in isolation.

Quinsigamond Community College

The school is fully remote for the 2020 fall semester and does not have a public health dashboard.