Over 500 new cases for USU since January

*This story was updated on Feb.12 at 7:15 a.m.

The Utah State University community has added 520 new COVID cases to it’s total count since Jan. 1.

This brings the total count to 2,925 positive cases since the university began keeping track in March of 2020.

As of Feb. 11, five off-campus students and one staff member were added to the count.

University spokesperson Amanda DeRito said it’s important to remember that many of these cases were likely a result of people traveling for the holidays. 217 students were also tested in the Eccles Conference Center on Tuesday. All tested negative for COVID-19.

“We have a really good system in place,” DeRito said.

She added that it’s hard to imagine the university not being able to handle any new challenges that come up. Especially as they are moving in the right direction in terms of infection rates. However, she stressed that we “can’t relax just yet.”

Currently, there are 118 active COVID cases in the USU community, with 14 on-campus students, 85 off-campus students, one faculty member and 18 staff members.

The majority of the active cases, which totals 106, are from the Logan Main campus. USU Eastern has four cases, USU Blanding has one case and there are seven more cases from statewide campuses.