178 coronavirus cases now reported at Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech is experiencing a spike in coronavirus cases according to the school’s COVID-19 dashboard.

In a statement Monday, officials at the Blacksburg, Va., university explained that the spike is “not unexpected” and tied to “transitions from benchmarking the health of residential students moving onto campus to diagnostic testing, screening, and surveillance testing.”

“Virginia Tech maintains it is counterproductive for the university to punish students by retroactively investigating how they contracted COVID-19. However, the university will use its conduct process to address dangerous behavior that creates conditions that spreads the virus,” the statement continued.

Some 157 new cases were reported at the university over the past seven days, bringing the school’s total up to 178. The school’s positive test rate now sits at just under 2 percent, according to the dashboard.

More than 10,000 students and faculty members have been tested for the virus, according to school officials, and several dozen students are currently isolating in their dorm rooms.

Universities around the country have struggled to respond to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., which this week passed 6 million cases nationwide.

School officials at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill were forced to reverse plans to open campus for in-person learning due to a COVID-19 spike among students that in recent days has grown to more than 1,000 confirmed cases.

Some universities and colleges have moved to suspend or issue other disciplinary measures against students who violate social distancing and gathering size violations as fall semester begins across the country.