Colleges are being blamed for many of the most serious current outbreaks of the novel coronavirus in the country and fraternities are shouldering a large share of that fault, reports said Friday.
Towns with large college student populations account for 19 of the 25 of the most severe outbreaks nationally, according to a USA Today analysis, and CNBC said school officials are pointing the finger at the Greek social organizations.
“We are having a significant issue with a small number of students, and we have disturbing information stemming, frankly, from the fraternities in particular,” University of Tennessee Chancellor Donde Plowman told students and staff in an online address.
The school, located in Knoxville, had 779 active Covid-19 cases as of Thursday with another 2,400 students in quarantine. Plowman said the university had to secure a nearby hotel to isolate infected students.
Tennessee’s development follows the report of the University of New Hampshire tracing 11 COVID-19 cases to a fraternity party that had about 100 attendees – without masks.
Additionally, Indiana University on Thursday asked students living in fraternity housing to “re-evaluate” their housing arrangements, saying the positivity rate – the percentage of tests that return positive – for some fraternities is above 50%.
“This spread poses a risk to uninfected individuals in the Greek community, students outside of the Greek community, as well as faculty and staff at Indiana University Bloomington,” the team said in a statement posted to Twitter.
“Dorms are not seeing the level of positivity rates that are being found in Greek houses.”
Dr. Carlos del Rio, a professor at the Emory University School of Medicine who specializes in infectious diseases, said besides the danger with the college community, it also impacts the towns where the schools are located.
“There’s the unknowns, the dangers of the things you cannot control. There’s a fraternity party, the students decide to go out and go to a nightclub,” Del Rio said. “There’s so many other things that can happen which can increase your risk.”
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