Mercer University Logs 103 Student Coronavirus Cases

Caption

Mercer University students pledging the Phi Mu sorority pose for a group photo on the Macon campus recently.

Credit: Grant Blankenship/GPB

Mandatory testing at Mercer University has identified 103 students, out of 4,229 tested, who have contracted the coronavirus.

The university says all 103 of the cases were identified and quarantined before the start of fall semester and that most were medically cleared to attend classes before the start of the semester.

Mercer is so far committed to a regular schedule of face-to-face instruction.

The numbers flow from mandatory testing from July 20 to August 19 and include 15 cases among 263 faculty and staff.

While the university says the infections span all four Mercer campuses, they declined to say what proportion of them were identified on Mercer's main campus in Macon where around 3,400 undergraduate students are enrolled.

The infections give Mercer a cumulative student case rate slightly higher than that at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where classes recently were taken fully online due to coronavirus outbreaks.