Notre Dame Places A "Pause" On In-Person Instruction
With a recent spike in cases of COVID-19 on campus, the University of Notre Dame has placed a "pause" on in-person classroom instruction. For the next two weeks all class instruction for students at the university will be virtual.
“With the advice and encouragement of Dr. Mark Fox of the St. Joseph County Health Department, we believe we can take steps short of sending students home for remote instruction, at least for the time being, while still protecting the health and safety of the campus community,” Father John I. Jenkins stated through a university release.
“The virus is a formidable foe,” Jenkins said. “For the past week, it has been winning. Let us as the Fighting Irish join together to contain it.”
Notre Dame began in-person classroom instruction on August 10. The first week saw a small number of cases, but on Monday that number grew to 147 out of 927 tests (since Aug. 3 per the school's release). In Notre Dame's release it said that most of the positive tests were students that lived off campus, and just one was a staff member (non-student).
“Our contact-tracing analysis indicates that most infections are coming from off-campus gatherings,” Jenkins said in a release. “Students infected at those gathering passed it on to others, who in turn have passed the virus on to others, resulting in the positive cases we have seen.”
According to Jenkins, Notre Dame plans on cracking down on off-campus parties in an attempt to limit big gatherings of people. The release from Notre Dame also said off-campus students are not to visit campus and students living in the dorms should stay on campus. Notre Dame also said gatherings should be limited to no more than 10 people.
The decision to require students that live off campus to stay off campus does not impact the football team.
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