The University’s asymptomatic screening programme has detected 38 asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 from 38 different households in its third week of operation (19/10-25/10).

This was an increase of just four cases from the previous testing week (12/10-18/10) despite the fact that just under a thousand more students were screened.

Half of students from each testing pool were asked to contribute swabs in the third testing week, increasing the numbers screened to 4,660, up from 3,675 in the programme's second week. 

The University estimates that the Covid-19 positivity rate is 0.8%, or 1 in 120 students, again a slight decrease from the week before when it was 1 in every 109 students.

In addition to this, the symptomatic testing programme revealed 105 positive cases, a decrease of 15 from the previous week.

Members of all 38 positive pools were invited for individual tests. Two pools were found to be false positives while one still has outstanding results. The false positivity rate from the available data was 0.1%.

From a total of 2,255 testing pools across the University only 1,933 were received and processed at the testing facility. Of these, 31 were reported as void for reasons including inappropriate packaging and leaking samples.

Participation remains incomplete with 78.3% of eligible students consenting to take part in the screening programme while 19.8% remain ‘undecided’. Just 1.4% declined.