Spike in Oxford University Covid cases after Freshers Week

Oxford city centre has seen rise in cases among students

A total of 61 people at Oxford University tested positive for coronavirus during the institution's Freshers Week.

The cases in the week to 9 October make up two thirds of all 91 confirmed cases at the university since August.

The university previously announced it had asked students to sign a "responsibility agreement" ahead of Freshers Week.

It still plans to welcome all students back for its Michaelmas term.

The institution, whose colleges host about 24,000 students, had issued the contract to students to outline "new habits and adjustments" required to "enable academic and social activity to take place as safely as possible".

The spike in cases at Oxford comes after Oxford Brookes University confirmed that of the 152 cases in the city in the week prior Oxford's freshers week, 98 were Brookes students and staff.

Oxford University said it will "continue to keep its emergency response status under constant review in light of government and local health authority advice".

It has implemented four "emergency response stages" and each stage details the level of restrictions for colleges.

Oxford Brookes University has about 17,000 students and Oxford University about 24,000

It said it was currently at stage two and was "planning to operate in line with social distancing restrictions with as full a student cohort as possible on site in the Michaelmas Term".

If stage four is reached, the university has said the majority of its college's buildings would close along with parks and public spaces.

Oxfordshire County Council has previously announced it was "reviewing the usefulness" of its own alert system after cases reached its "red alert" level of more than 50 per 100,000 people.