College campuses around New York are dealing with major changes brought on by positive cases of the Novel Coronavirus.
SUNY Oneonta has had 177 positive cases since the start of the fall semester. That’s 72 more cases than what was reported over the weekend. Officials say that 44 are quarantined on-campus, and another 65 are in isolation.
Governor Andrew Cuomo says that this is going to be a risk that grows.
“You will see the transmission rate go up and then you will see schools close. Now some of that is inevitable, 700 school districts, it is inevitable that when you bring a concentration of people together the viral transmission rate is going to go up,” Cuomo said.
Oneonta had to shut down campus for a minimum of two weeks after more than 100 students tested positive. There were gatherings on-campus and around it, which led to the outbreak.
Meanwhile, three Greek organizations and nine students were suspended at SUNY Geneseo for violating health and safety protocols connected to the Coronavirus Pandemic.
“I’m definitely a party person so I was really looking forward to a party but once the pandemic hit I knew that wasn’t going to be a possibility,” freshman Torianna Robleto told News10NBC.
School president Denise Battles said in addition to those nine students, fraternities Zeta Beta Xi, Theta Chi and sorority Sigma Theta Tau are under interim suspension pending conduct reviews.
“We were warned when we got here, we were told all of the rules very explicitly and they decided not to follow it,” Robleto added. “So as much as I would like to say give them a second chance, we can only have less than 5% of the school’s population before we have to shut down so it’s safer if they get suspended.”
Local police say that since August 22nd they have responded to eight different parties and large gatherings. Some of those had more than 40 people in attendance.
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