UNH Sees Spike in COVID-19 Cases, But Not Others Colleges

By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD – While there appears to be a spike in COVID-19 at the University of New Hampshire with 269 active cases reported Friday, other colleges in the state appear to be doing relatively well.

UNH went to total remote learning this week after students were just returning to campus for the spring semester on Feb. 1.

According to its COVID-19 dashboard as of Friday 12,947 had been tested and 265 students and four faculty were confirmed to have the virus with 73 students on campus in isolation and 72 in quarantine.

But the statistics for other institutions of higher learning in Keene, Manchester, Plymouth, New London, Henniker, and Hanover show only a handful of cases on their dashboards this week.

UNH President James Dean announced the university would be going to fully remote learning and warned that if conditions did not improve in the next few days the university would have to impose more restrictions. He said the majority of the cases were among students living off-campus.

The restrictions include no visitation among housing units and gatherings limited to six or fewer.

Also just returning to campus were students at Plymouth State University. According to its most recent available data, as of Feb. 5, PSU had 39 total cases with 35 of them involving students. There were three people in quarantine on campus.

Dartmouth College in Hanover reported 10 active cases with six students and four faculty and staff as of Feb. 10.

Keene State College reported seven cases and its open status was considered “green” while the city of Keene had about 32 cases.

In New London, Colby-Sawyer College reported 13 cases as of Feb. 10 with no one isolating or quarantining on campus.
In Manchester at St. Anslem, there are five current cases this week with four students and one faculty/staff member testing positive.