21 Students Living in The Gables @ UNH Linked To COVID-19

Health officials said that 21 UNH students living at the Gables have been linked to COVID-19, according to a story from WMUR.

The Gables is a five building on campus apartment complex that houses almost 1,000 students.  Health officials are saying the cases are not connected to any event at the complex.

The report goes on to say that since late July, everyone on campus, including the staff have been tested.  The rate of positive cases has been less than 0.12% for students and less than that for staff.

UNH Police Chief Paul Dean said in the report:

We're three weeks into it, and those are our numbers, and we're doing close to 4,000 tests a day........ I mean, I think the success story here is about the testing. It's safe. It makes the community safe.

My stepson is a sophomore at UNH, my husband is a Professor there as well and they both have to take tests on a regular basis.  I am always happy to hear that their tests come back negative.  If they were positive, so would I be.

Even though 21 might seem like a big number, UNH's testing right now is even impressive to NH's State epidemiologist, Dr. Benjamin Chan who was cited in the report:

That's more testing than many college and universities even around the country have been doing, so I think it's a very aggressive testing program, and they have facilitated that by bringing on testing themselves on the UNH campus, and I think that has been and will be an important strategy.