Nearly 150 Stanford students isolating on campus after testing positive for COVID

PALO ALTO, Calif. - Stanford University reported Monday afternoon that 146 students are quarantining in campus housing after testing positive for COVID, the university confirmed.

Most of the students tested positive when they returned to campus last weekend after the winter break.

The university is providing all isolating students with delivered meals, medical consultations and other support, according to an email from Associate Vice Provost of Environmental Health & Safety Russell Furr.

Students were assigned new housing to quarantine if they did not already have a private bedroom and single-occupancy bathroom.

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Karla Hudson, senior director of public relations at Stanford, said the university had anticipated an uptick in infections after winter break.

"We planned for a likely increase in positive cases in a way that would allow students to continue their academic progress," Hudson said. "We implemented the rapid testing to allow us to quickly identify and isolate positive cases as students returned from the winter break, and we initiated the two-week period of online instruction so that students in isolation would be able to keep up with their coursework."

The news comes amid a surge of COVID cases statewide due to the omicron variant.

Stanford requires weekly testing, regardless of vaccination status, for students living on and off campus.

Despite the campus surge, Stanford says its positivity rate continues to be lower than overall trends in Santa Clara County and California.