Almost 1,000 students and staff at Durham University have tested positive for coronavirus in just one week in a major outbreak.
A total of 958 people were infected with Covid-19 at the university in the last seven days.
The latest figures cover the week leading up to October 14, as council leaders in the area agreed to oppose the Government's plans to place the region into Tier 3 restrictions.
The latest figures come after 222 students and members of staff tested positive for the virus the previous week, ChronicleLive reports.
It brings the total number of cases to 1,220 since the start of term, with 11 cases among staff and 1,209 among students.
The figures were released by Durham University as part of its weekly update on the number of cases that have been reported by students or staff through its own system.
It comes as 800 students living at the institute’s St Mary’s and Collingwood College were told to quarantine following a spike in cases.
In a statement, it said: "Over the last seven days, the number of reported positive coronavirus cases in students and staff has been steady, with approximately 100-150 new reported cases each day.
"We are proactively and regularly monitoring and managing the situation with local and national public health experts and taking appropriate action where required.
“We have proactively managed the two significant outbreaks we have faced, in two of our colleges – St Mary’s College and Collingwood College - by introducing new measures for our students living in those colleges.
"Working with Durham County Council’s Public Health Team, these measures were put in place on Thursday (October 8) to limit movement of students within these colleges to further restrict the spread of coronavirus.
“The new measures are in addition to the current Government restrictions.
“We continue to communicate regularly with our staff and students, to promote expected behaviours and to reinforce key information on the Government restrictions and additional guidance in place on university campus in the interests of everybody’s health, safety and wellbeing.
“Our teaching and wider student experience activity continues both online and face-to-face, in Covid-secure setting.”
