Hundreds of students in 2 quarantined UW-Madison dorms have tested positive for COVID-19

MADISON, Wis. — Hundreds of students who live in the two residence halls forced into a two-week quarantine by University of Wisconsin-Madison officials in an attempt to stop the spread of COVID-19 have tested positive for the coronavirus.

According to a briefing shared Thursday on UW-Madison’s Smart Restart dashboard, Witte Hall has a positive case rate of nearly 10% and while Sellery Hall’s is 17%. University Health Services is working Thursday and Friday to test all of the students isolated in the dorms.

From UW-Madison:

-Since late last week positive test result rates have risen to nearly 10 percent in Witte Hall and 17 percent in Sellery Hall.

There are 2,200+ students in the two halls combined. All will be tested today/tomorrow. #News3Now

— Adam Duxter (@News3Adam) September 10, 2020

With approximately 1,255 students in Witte and 970 in Sellery, there are just over 2,200 students who are being required to isolate.

Of all the tests conducted Wednesday on the UW-Madison campus, 13% of them came back positive Thursday afternoon.

The new statistics come the same day that Public Health Madison & Dane County announced 456 new cases of the coronavirus, which is a record-smashing number for new cases within a 24-hour period. The vast majority of those cases are believed to be linked to UW-Madison students and staff.

Here’s what we learned from @PublicHealthMDC during today’s press conference:

-In the past week, Dane Co has added 1,281 new COVID cases.
-456 new cases yesterday, that’s a record
-It’s believed up to 85% of those cases could be linked to @UWMadison students/staff. #News3Now

— Adam Duxter (@News3Adam) September 10, 2020

The UW System has also released information about positivity rates at several other UW System schools. Despite repeated promises for widespread testing throughout the UW System, less than 1,400 test results were received throughout the entire system on Wednesday. Only one school, UW-Eau Claire, processed more than 200 tests in that time span.

UW-Madison’s testing numbers saw a serious drop on Monday and Tuesday. Since then the university has upped its testing numbers. Just under 2,300 students were tested on the UW-Madison campus on Wednesday, and of those, 295 students tested positive.

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