COVID-19 by the numbers
This week it reported declining supplies of remdesivir (for non-US countries) and a staggering increase in confirmed daily cases.
An outbreak of COVID-19 among Greek life students at the University of Washington has infected at least 93 people. This occurs after the state reported its second highest day of new cases.
As of June 3, the University of Washington and Public Health – Seattle and King County announced that there were at least 89 fraternity home residents who tested positive for the new coronavirus with four other students who also tested positive but were not living. in fraternity accommodation.
The Interfraternity Council, a student-led governing board for the UW fraternities, reported that at least 117 residents living in 15 fraternity houses reported that they tested positive for COVID-19. The university is still collecting and verifying the status of these cases, and this number may not reflect all positive cases, according to a press release.
The university provides a monitoring website for all positive and suspected positive cases on each of the university’s three campuses.
A total of 145 people are presumptively positive and / or have been confirmed positive for the new coronavirus. This includes faculty and students from the Bothell, Tacoma, and Seattle campuses.
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The illnesses were reported among several dozen students living north of the Seattle-based university, according to a university statement.
“While we were pleased to see that most houses had taken steps to reduce resident capacity by as much as 50 percent this summer in response to COVID-19, those steps are not enough without daily and vigilant preventive measures, such as wearing face covers, physical distancing and hand hygiene, “said Dr. Jeffrey Gottlieb, chairman of the UW Advisory Committee on Communicable Diseases, in the press release.
All Greek houses are independent off-campus organizations, each with a respective governing board. The university does not have the authority to regulate the number of members who can live in each household, Michelle Ma, a university spokeswoman, wrote in an email statement to Fox News.
Currently, there are about 1,000 students living in 25 fraternity houses in the north campus neighborhood, according to a school news release. House residents were asked to quarantine or isolate themselves, meaning that those who tested positive for COVID-19, those who have symptoms, and those who may have been exposed but show no symptoms remain. in their houses.
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“What is happening north of campus offers lessons for students as they consider their return to campus this fall. If everyone does their part to stay safe, we can continue to interact with each other and with our studies in the university environment by wearing face covers and staying physically distant, ”said Gottlieb. “If we don’t, measures like the ones now required at Greek Row will be inevitable. I have a feeling that all students want to return to a certain sense of normalcy, so I urge everyone to follow public health guidelines so that we can do that. ”
Washington has a total of 34,778 confirmed cases, 4,463 hospitalizations, and 1,352 deaths, according to state data.
FOX News contributed to this report.
