UC Berkeley ties dozens of new coronavirus cases to campus Greek parties (CNN)

[Mike 03]

Alicia Lee, CNN
Updated 1:41 PM EDT
Thu July 09, 2020

Officials at the University California (UC), Berkeley are worried that their hopes to bring students back to campus in the fall won't go as planned after the school confirmed 47 new coronavirus cases in just one week.

Most of the new cases "stem from a series of recent parties connected to the CalGreek system, which included students both within the CalGreek community and others, and led to some secondary spread within households and within other smaller gatherings," UC Berkeley said in a statement.

Before the latest outbreak, the university had reported just 23 cases total since the start of the pandemic. But now, with the sudden spike in cases, school officials said "it's becoming harder to imagine bringing our campus community back in the way we are envisioning."

"If we can keep our COVID-19 case numbers low, we can continue to move forward with our fall semester plans," the school added.

The cases at UC Berkeley highlight the growing concern for college administrators who are busily making plans for in-person fall semester classes, while acknowledging that off-campus contact poses an equal threat when it comes to containing the virus in the student community.

Read more: https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/07/09/us/uc-berkeley-coronavirus-frat-parties-trnd/index.html

[erronis]

1. Too bad. The frat/sorority seems to attract the same class of people who think COVID is a hoax.

Maybe I'm being a bit judgemental, but my experience on campuses (as student and professional), is that these young people that want to get pledged are more likely to follow a herd - and a herd that says "We are immortal, we can do what we want." They don't tend to be the thoughtful ones that wonder if mass gatherings are maybe not the safest thing.

Culling.

[madaboutharry]

2. The Cal State system is looking rather wise today.

They announced a while back that they would be going exclusively online this fall. There was some criticism that they were overreacting. Now they look like the made the best decision for the students.