Ohio State reported that 127 students tested positive on Monday for COVID-19. The spike in cases comes after many large gatherings in the off-campus area occurred during football games over the past three weekends.  Credit: Christian Harsa | Assistant Photo Editor

After an October of low COVID-19 positivity rates and about a week of small increases, Ohio State has once again reported triple-digit single-day COVID-19 cases.

Ohio State reported that 127 students tested positive on Monday for COVID-19 — equating to 2.48 percent of the more than 5,100 students tested that day. 

Of the 2,948 off-campus students tested Monday, 67 tested positive for a single-day positivity rate of 2.27 percent.

Of the 2,169 on-campus students tested Monday, 60 tested positive, for a single-day positivity rate of 2.77 percent.

The previous week’s high for daily new COVID-19 cases was 79 on Nov. 5 and the last week of October had a daily high of 45 on Oct. 28.

The uptick in cases comes after the start of the COVID-19-delayed football season brought an increase in large gatherings to the off-campus area. Ohio State has competed the past three weekends, but the team’s game against Maryland Saturday has been canceled due to a COVID-19 outbreak among Maryland’s football team.

The state of Ohio is also in the midst of COVID-19 case spikes, setting multiple daily records for newly reported COVID-19 cases. The state reported 5,874 new cases Wednesday and 6,508 Tuesday.

In a statewide address Wednesday evening, Gov. Mike DeWine imposed new face-covering guidelines on businesses and said if the situation in the state does not improve, restaurants and bars may have to shut back down in a week and colleges and universities may have to operate virtually come spring semester.