Coronavirus cases among students at University of Alabama climb to more than 1,000
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 4 years ago • 8 commentsBy: Minyvonne Burke (NBC News)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Coronavirus cases are continuing to climb at the University of Alabama, with more than 1,000 students testing positive for COVID-19 since the start of on-campus classes last week.
The school's COVID-19 dashboard shows that 492 students across their three campuses tested positive for the virus between Tuesday and Thursday, bringing the total number of cases since Aug. 19 — when the fall semester began — to 1,063.
Those numbers do not include the 305 students who tested positive prior to the start of on-campus classes.
A majority of the cases are at the university's main campus in Tuscaloosa. According to the dashboard, 1,043 students have tested positive since Aug. 19.
In a press release on Friday, the university said that none of the students who have tested positive have been hospitalized.
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"Our exposure notification efforts have revealed no evidence of virus transmission due to in-person class instruction," said Dr. Ricky Friend, the university's dean of the College of Community Health Sciences.
"We remain satisfied that the precautions implemented prior to the resumption of classes — including masking, distancing, and a blend of in-person and remote instruction — are appropriate and effective."
UA System Chancellor Finis St. John said that students have the option to remain on campus or return home and take online classes.
Kellee Reinhart, senior vice-chancellor for communications and community relations at the university, previously told NBC News that the school "has an ample amount of quarantine space for COVID-positive students."
But "many students have chosen to go home to recuperate," she said. Earlier this week, the university reported that more than 550 people across its campuses had the virus.
Selwyn Vickers, dean of the School of Medicine at UAB and co-chair of the UA System Health and Safety Task Force, said that "over the past week, due to student behavior, we have seen a spike in the number of students who have sought re-testing because they became symptomatic or were exposed to a COVID-positive individual."
"That trend prompted the decision to take further steps to reduce the chance that the COVID- 19 virus will escalate dramatically," she added.
Among faculty and staff, there have been 82 coronavirus cases across the three campuses since Aug. 19.
On Monday, Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox announced that bars would be closed for two weeks. During this time, restaurants will have to eliminate bar service, the mayor said. Alcohol can only be served at tables.
St. John thanked the mayor for his decision, saying in Friday's press release, "We remain concerned that off-campus transmission is our greatest risk, which is why we asked Mayor Maddox to consider that action. We thank him for making that difficult decision to protect our campus community and Tuscaloosa."
Minyvonne Burke
Minyvonne Burke is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.
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The peak of these infections may arrive just in time to doom Trump's re-election.
It is obvious that whenever things are "opened up" the rate of the virus spikes.
When colleges are closed down in October what will Trump's chances look like ?
“The peak of these infections may arrive just in time to doom Trump's re-election.”
you’re hoping so, aren’t ya? The more, the nastier, the deadlier, the better, right?
I wish it were over and no one was sick.
The US has 4 times the death rate of Germany from the virus.
I thought we were the "exceptional" nation. We kicked Germany's ass in WW2 and we can't even stay with them in fighting coronavirus?
Because we did not shut down in the beginning it will just linger and linger and linger.
“I wish it were over and no one was sick.”
you and me both.
“The US has 4 times the death rate of Germany from the virus.”
where do you get that? From the cdc website the US has had 5,890,532 cases with 181,143 total deaths. These numbers are current to 8-29-2020. Divide 181,143 by 5,890,532 and you get .03075. Germany has had 242,825 cases and 9,363 deaths. These numbers are current to 8-30-2020. Divide 9,363 by 242,825 and you get .03855. How is .03075 higher than let alone 4 times higher than .03855? And yeah, The US is an exceptional nation. I am proud to be American.
“Because we did not shut down in the beginning it will just linger and linger and linger.”
trump shut down flights from china and was called a racist and xenophobe, remember that? He was also listening to fauci who in late january said covid was nothing to worry about. Then more than a month later fauci was saying that Americans need not change their habits because of covid. Plus, certain dems were saying go to chinatown, go to the movies, go out to dinner, etc.. also, a dem governor was putting positive covid patients In nursing homes. Yeah, that didn’t end well. To blame this on trump is ludicrous.
Maybe everyone made mistakes, but who is your leader?
Maybe? MAYBE? Are you frickin serious? It starts with china, who did some real shitty things to the rest of the world. They banned travel from wuhan to the rest of china but allowed travel from wuhan to the rest of the world. They lied about how contagious it was. They let the cat out of the bag while tedros, their little buttbuddy form the who covered for them.
Early on, italy sent medical supplies to china, no charge. Later, when italy was suffering china SOLD those same supplies back to italy. Lives were at stake and china sold medical supplies around the world that were defective, no big surprise there since chinese made goods are well known for being shit. I could go on and on but to keep it short, fuck china!
as for your last little tidbit, what the hell does that even mean?
Maybe it started in China, and maybe it didn't. But I was talking about the USA, where my "last little tidbit" refers to your incompetent leader who so totally mismanaged the virus, so negligently, while other countries had leaders and population who were smart about it and locked down immediately, and are pretty well back to normal now, so in the case of your country, I think "YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET".
Exactly. Now, with unbelievably negligent leadership, and the patchwork of incompetent attempts to contain it all over the USA, a society where individual rights and freedoms, the economy and money, are so much more important than life and health and the collective good, what else can you expect?