Five administrative employees who work in facilities management at the University of Maine have tested positive for COVID-19, the university said Thursday evening.
Three of the cases are new, with the previous two discovered on Wednesday, according to University of Maine System spokesperson Dan Demeritt.
All the employees are currently isolating. Thirty-eight other employees within the department were also tested for the disease.
The university also reported a second positive case within its off-campus student population Thursday. One student is staying in a university isolation space and the other is isolating off-campus.
There are no active cases of COVID-19 that require isolation among residential students, the university said. The university system has conducted nearly 30,000 COVID-19 tests since the start of the fall semester and recorded 28 positive results.
Last week, the university found low levels of fragments of SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — in Orono wastewater. Detectable levels of the virus might be a sign of a potential outbreak, as infected people can shed the virus in their stools before developing symptoms.
Students are scheduled to remain on campus until the Thanksgiving holiday break before they switch to remote classes for the rest of the semester.