Coronavirus-infected college student among those cited after Ohio party, universities struggle to contain outbreaks

Patriot-News - 9/14/2020

Several college students – one of whom had tested positive for the coronavirus -- were cited after they were found throwing a party over Labor Day weekend in Ohio.

The incident at a house in Oxford, Ohio, near the campus of the Miami University, made national headlines as colleges and universities around the country try to resume classes during a pandemic and struggle to crack down on such gatherings, cited as the root of many collegiate outbreaks, the Washington Post is reporting.

The incident was caught on a police officer's body camera, which can be seen on Cleveland'sCBS 19 News.

According to 19 News, an Oxford police officer approached the gathering, and one of the students said 20 people had attended the party.

The officer ran one of the student's IDs and told him, "I've never seen this before, there's an input on the computer that you tested positive for COVID?" the officer asked.

The student answered, "Yes."

Sighing, the officer pointed out the student was not quarantining if he's mixing with other people.

This happened as the university reported more than 1,000 students testing positive for the coronavirus, Cleveland's Local 12 reports.

Six students who live at the house received citations and a civil penalty, which includes a $500 fine each, but no criminal charges were filed, according to the Washington Post.

A spokeswoman for the university told the Washington Post she cannot comment on individual cases, but students who violate a quarantine order or host large gatherings are in violation of a city ordinance and will face disciplinary action at the school. In-person classes are expected to begin there Sept. 21.

In Pennsylvania, the number of new coronavirus cases has risen in September after dropping steadily in August. State officials have also tracked an uptick in new cases among younger adults.

"We have seen a significant increase in 19-to-24-year-olds," Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said in a news conference, adding the department has tracked increases in COVID-19 cases at colleges and universities.

There are nearly 500 positive cases of COVID-19 at the 14 state-owned universities, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. One student has died, TribLive.com reports

Of Pennsylvania's state colleges, Shippensburg University is holding about half of its classes remotely. Lock Haven University chose to close down in-person classes for two weeks once the rate of positive tests on campus reached 5 %.

At non-state schools, Penn State University has reported 433 cases of the virus. Temple University suspended nearly all of it's in-person classes for the fall semester after 368 students tested positive. Gettysburg College ordered all of its students to quarantine in their dorm rooms after 32 students tested positive.

Around the country, larger universities are having a difficult time restricting large gatherings.

The University of Alabama, for example, had more than 2,000 positive cases, issued 639 individual sanctions to students as of Thursday, and 33 students have been suspended, The Associated Press is reporting.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign had a plan in place to test students twice per week and track them with an app, but student parties led to more than 400 new cases, according to the New York Times.

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