San Diego State University announced it has extended its stay-at-home order for students through next Monday amid rising COVID-19 cases within the student population.
The order asking students to stay in their current residences, except for essential needs, was originally set to expire at 6 a.m. Tuesday, but will remain in effect through 9 a.m. Monday.
Violations of the order may result in disciplinary consequences, the college said.
The university reported another 63 confirmed or probable COVID-19 cases Monday within the on- and off-campus student population.
The latest cases raise the university's total caseload to 286 since fall semester began Aug. 24.
On Friday, San Diego County public health officials confirmed multiple clusters of COVID-19 cases within the university community among students. This includes the previously announced off-campus outbreak on Wednesday.
None of the cases under investigation are related to on-campus educational activities, including classes or labs, according to the university.
All of the university's in-person classes — which SDSU President Adela de la Torre said comprised just 7% of all courses — were moved online last Wednesday. SDSU also paused all on-campus athletics training and workouts for two weeks starting last Thursday due to COVID-19.
Luke Wood, SDSU's vice president for student affairs and campus diversity, said the university was working with a security company to enforce public health code regulations and had issued a total of 457 student violations through Friday afternoon.
Wood said the most serious of these violations could result in suspension or expulsion from the university. Some organizations have been cited as well. Wood said the majority of these were fraternities or sororities.
On Sunday, San Diego County public health officials reported 308 new COVID-19 cases and three additional deaths, raising the county's cumulative totals to 40,650 cases and 707 fatalities.
Two women and one man died between July 29 and Aug. 31, public health officials said. Their ages ranged from mid-50s to mid-90s. Two of the three had underlying medical conditions.
San Diego County's state-calculated case rate is 5.8 and the testing positivity percentage is 3.8%.
Of 4,271 tests reported as of Saturday, 7% returned positive, raising the county's 14-day rolling positive testing rate to 4.3%, well below the state's 8% guideline. The seven-day average number of tests performed in the county is 6,946.
Of the total positive cases in the county, 3,214 — or 7.9% — have required hospitalization since the pandemic began, and 772 — or 1.9% — were admitted to an intensive care unit.
County health officials reported two new community outbreaks as of Saturday, bringing the number of outbreaks in the past week to 20. One of the outbreaks was at a residence and one at a business.
The number of community outbreaks remains well above the county's goal of fewer than seven in a seven-day span. A community setting outbreak is defined as three or more COVID-19 cases in a setting and in people of different households in the past 14 days.
Under the new state monitoring metrics, San Diego County is in Tier 2, also referred to as the red tier.
