Penn State reported 254 new COVID-19 cases among University Park students and employees this week, according to the university’s COVID-19 Dashboard.

Between Friday, March 12, and Friday, March 19 the university administered 7,491 tests to students and employees. Two hundred and fifty-four students and employees tested positive for COVID-19.

This week’s figures easily represented the largest spike in reported cases this semester. Penn State hadn’t reported as many or more cases in a week’s worth of updates since mid-November.

According to the university, a large but unclear number of reported positives this week came from East Halls residents. In response, Penn State asked those living in Earle, Martin, Hastings, and Stone halls to utilize walk-up testing down the road at Pegula Ice Arena.

Over the past week, Penn State’s total positivity rate for the semester (or since December 19) increased from 2.3% to 2.5%. About 2.9% of tests administered over the last seven days returned positive results.

One hundred and thirteen students are currently isolating at Penn State’s Eastview Terrace complex, while 72 are quarantined there. The university is using up 46% of its 400-room capacity. Last Friday, just 19% of rooms were in use.

Penn State has administered 58,906 COVID-19 tests to students and employees this semester, resulting in 1,455 total positives.

Penn State’s COVID-19 Dashboard also incorporates figures from student-athlete testing and any tests taken by those who remained on campus over winter break.

Penn State plans on updating the newly unveiled dashboard three times a week throughout the semester on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The university said testing data is added to the dashboard once results are received.

New features on the dashboard include an “All Campuses” button that shows testing statistics for Penn State’s entire network, calculations for positivity rates, and “enhanced” quarantine and isolation data.

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Editor’s Note: This semester, Onward State is publishing weekly COVID-19 Dashboard summaries. Feel free to check out our site on Friday afternoons for updates on Penn State’s COVID-19 testing figures, quarantine and isolation space capacity, and more.