State health officials announced Thursday that the city of Boston was given the “red” status for COVID-19 cases, along with the cities of Worcester and Springfield, according to an NBC Boston article. The red status denotes a positive test rate of greater than eight cases per 100,000 population per day. According to the map on the University’s COVID-19 dashboard, last updated Sept. 30, the city of Boston has an average of nine cases per 100,000 population per day.

Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito announced in a press briefing on Aug. 11 that the state would be adopting a color-coding system to denote the positivity rate of COVID-19 in each city. For a city to be denoted green, there needs to be fewer than four cases per 100,000 population per day, for yellow there can be between four and eight new cases, while any city above eight cases will be denoted as red.

The Brandeis Student Union warned the campus about this advisory in an Oct. 3 Instagram post, reminding students of the University’s policies regarding COVID-19. These policies include avoiding traveling unless necessary and informing the Dean of Students Office if a student needs to travel beyond the boundaries set forth by the University, which are within “the greater Boston area (within Route 495) until November 20,” according to the University’s Plans for Fall 2020 website. 

Correction: A previous version of this article used an incorrect unit to label the average positive test rates for COVID-19. The unit was changed to "population per day."