London: More than 1,800 students and staff from universities across the north-east of England, currently under tougher localised lockdowns, tested positive for coronavirus over the past week.Newcastle University said 1,003 students and 12 members of staff were confirmed to have been infected with coronavirus in the past week, compared with 94 last Friday.
At Northumbria University, there were also 619 new cases and Durham University confirmed 219 cases in students in the last week.Most universities are planning to switch to online teaching for at least three weeks, except in cases where in-person lessons are essential.Newcastle University said "the overwhelming majority of cases" were from "social and residential settings" and said.