The University of Notre Dame announced on Tuesday that it would move to online instruction for at least the next two weeks in an attempt to control a growing coronavirus outbreak, and would shut down campus entirely if those measures failed to stop the spread.
“If these steps are not successful, we will have to send students home, as we did last spring,” Notre Dame’s president, the Rev. John I. Jenkins, said in a video address to students, noting that he had been inclined to take that step before consulting with health officials.
The school will also close public spaces on campus and restrict dormitories to residents. Students who live in off-campus housing must stay off campus and “associate with housemates only,” he said, with a limit on gatherings reduced from 20 to 10 people.
On Tuesday, the school reported that at least 147 people on campus had tested positive for the virus since students began returning on Aug. 3 for the start of classes a week later. Eighty of those confirmed cases were added on Tuesday.
“The virus is a formidable foe,” Father Jenkins said. “For the past week, it has been winning.”
A university spokesman said a significant number of the cases were connected to two off-campus parties where students, mostly seniors, did not wear masks or practice social distancing. Most of those who have tested positive live in off-campus housing, the spokesman, Paul Browne, said.
On Monday, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill became the first large university in the country to shut down classes after students had returned. The school moved all undergraduate courses online after 177 students tested positive for the coronavirus and another 349 students were forced to quarantine because of possible exposure.
U.N.C., with 30,000 students, started classes on Aug. 10, the same day that courses resumed at Notre Dame, a campus of 8,600 undergraduate students near South Bend, Ind. Notre Dame tested all of its students before they returned to campus, with 33 positive results.
This is a developing story. Check back for more details.
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August 19, 2020 at 04:30AM
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