WESTFIELD- Westfield State University reported five new COVID-19 cases this week to bring the school’s semester total to 106.
The May 3 report stated that the percent-positivity rate for the week was 0.342 percent with 1,461 COVID-19 tests administered. The percent positivity rate for the entire semester is 0.481 percent with 22,041 total tests administered.
Westfield State is nearing the end of the spring 2021 semester, after two semesters in a row were cut short due to COVID-19. The spring 2020 semester was ended early for in-person learning during the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic when educational institutions across the country shut down.
In the fall 2020 semester, Westfield State experienced an outbreak of COVID-19 that ended in a shutdown of in-person learning. Lansdowne Place, the downtown apartment building used by Westfield State as a quarantine area, filled up rapidly and was no longer able to take in any more infected students. Dozens of COVID-19 infections were detected in a span of just a few weeks in the fall 2020 semester. Before Thanksgiving, students moved off campus to finish the semester remotely.
Students and staff returning to campus for the fall 2021 semester will be required to have received the COVID-19 vaccine.
