Thirty-six positive COVID-19 tests were reported last week by the University of St. Thomas’ Center For Well-Being Monday, a decrease of 15 from the previous week.
All cases came from the St. Paul campus, two of which came from employees.
“There remains no evidence of transmission in classroom or lab environments,” the message on the COVID-19 Dashboard said. “Nevertheless, the Center for Well-Being is strongly encouraging university community members to follow all health and safety guidelines in the Campus Preparedness Plan amid the backdrop of rising cases across Minnesota and continuing transmission in the St. Thomas community.”
Most transmission continues to stem from groups of students living together on and off campus, and students gathering in small groups without social distancing or wearing masks, according to the dashboard.
COVID-19 data is released by St. Thomas weekly on Mondays and can be found on the university’s COVID-19 Dashboard.
A late-stage study of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate has been paused while the company investigates whether a study participant’s “unexplained illness” is related to the shot.
The company said in a statement Monday evening that illnesses, accidents and other so-called adverse events “are an expected part of any clinical study, especially large studies,” but that its physicians and a safety monitoring panel would try to determine what might have caused the illness.
The pause is at least the second such hold to occur among several vaccines that have reached large-scale final tests in the U.S.
The company declined to reveal any more details about the illness, citing the participant’s privacy.
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett said Tuesday that while she admires the late Justice Antonin Scalia, she would bring her own approach to the high court. She is facing senators’ questions Tuesday for the first time at confirmation hearings on track to lock in a conservative court majority for years to come.
Barrett, a former law professor, described herself as taking a conservative, originalist approach to the Constitution – “text as text” — and believes a judge “doesn’t infuse her own meaning into it.”
She told the Senate Judiciary Committee, “You would not be getting Justice Scalia, you would be getting Justice Barrett.”
Barrett, family in tow, is on Capitol Hill for a second day of hearings. The mood is likely to shift to a more confrontational tone as Barrett, an appellate court judge with very little trial court experience, is grilled in 30-minute segments by Democrats strongly opposed to President Donald Trump’s nominee, yet virtually powerless to stop her. Republicans are rushing her to confirmation before Election Day.
The committee chairman, Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., gaveled open the session under coronavirus protocols with a focus on health care, and ending the Affordable Care Act.
Isabel Crosby can be reached at cros6421@stthomas.edu.