The University is now publishing daily reports on active cases of COVID-19. Latest figures show that we are on a downward trend, showing an 20% reduction since last Friday. Currently we have 1,215 active cases at the University.

While this may show that our efforts are working to manage the coronavirus, there is no room for complacency. We will continue to work with our partners in public health and ensure our community follows the new regional restrictions to protect themselves and the communities around them.

We have ensured that students keep to their designated households, use on-campus testing stations where possible and provided incentives to socialise at home or on campus, This activity runs alongside an asymptomatic testing regime to identify cases earlier and faster than the national scheme.

Active cases among staff remain low at 32 cases – under 3% of the total active caseload. This represents a quarter of one percent of our overall staff numbers. None are in teaching roles and many of these cases have not been on campus, with no evidence to suggest they have contracted the virus on campus. However, we will continue to ensure that all our activities to support students – including in-person teaching – is only conducted in a COVID-secure environment, following all government and public health guidelines.

We would like to thank our staff who are making tremendous efforts to teach, research and support our students on- and off-campus, as well as our 35,000 students, the overwhelming majority of whom are acting responsibly and following the rules.