Nine positive COVID-19 tests were reported to St. Thomas’ Center for Well-Being last week, a decrease of four from the previous week and the first time since early March that total cases were in the single digits.

All cases were from students, with one of them being at the Minneapolis campus.

St. Thomas community members lined up beginning Friday to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at McCarthy Gym, the first of two vaccination rounds hosted by the university. 1,793 individuals received vaccines on Friday and Saturday, according to the COVID-19 Dashboard.

Macalester College is now the first Minnesota college to require students and employees that are working or studying on-campus to be fully vaccinated by August 2, according to a statement Friday from Macalester President Suzanne Rivera.

St. Thomas has not officially said whether COVID-19 vaccines will be required for its students and staff, but it is something that the university is thinking about.

St. Thomas softball coach John Tschida will resign at the end of the 2021 season to become the softball coach at his alma mater, St. Mary’s University, athletics departments from St. Mary’s and St. Thomas announced Monday.

Tschida, who has led the team for 21 seasons and accumulated 792 wins, the most wins of any coach in program history, told St. Mary’s news service that St. Thomas’ move to Division I was one of “a number of reasons” why Tschida resigned from St. Thomas.

This will be Tschida’s second run as St. Mary’s head coach, a position he held from 1994 to 2000 before coming to St. Thomas. Between St. Mary’s and St. Thomas, he is one game short of 1,000 wins, the most wins of any NCAA Division III softball coach.

Justin Amaker can be reached at justin.amaker@stthomas.edu.