Emerson reported one new positive COVID-19 test result Friday out of 702 new tests administered on Oct. 22, leaving the college’s cumulative positive tests since Aug. 6 at 26. Emerson’s cumulative testing total sits at 32,157.
The new data was reported at 12:13 pm.
Thursday’s positive test is the fourth this week.
Massachusetts reported 968 new coronavirus cases Friday. The total was down slightly from 986 new cases reported Thursday. The number of deaths fell from 30 to 19. New infections continue to rise in the state—cases numbers have not broken 900 since late May.
The college shifted from a manual data reporting process to an automatic one on Oct. 13. The decision came after an investigation by Beacon reporters revealed a string of inaccuracies in the data reported by the college.
Emerson’s dashboard is updated daily Monday through Friday. When it was first launched in August, the college opted for weekly updates before eventually shifting to twice weekly and then daily updates. Tabs for hospitalizations and the number of “invalid” results received by community members have been removed from the dashboard since testing began in August. Invalid results are typically a result of user error and require re-testing.
Administrators have said the decision to remove hospitalizations was an effort to increase transparency as the college said it could not accurately track the metric. Invalid results were deemed “not valuable” data by Muurisepp, who serves as the college’s “COVID lead”.
The dashboard is not updated on weekends because Emerson’s testing site at Tufts Medical Center is closed on Saturdays and Sundays, administrators have said.
