Nearly 1,200 students and 12 staff members at the University of Colorado Boulder have confirmed cases of COVID-19 in an outbreak that dwarfs any the state has seen so far.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported 1,198 students had confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, and 104 were considered probable cases as of Wednesday. No deaths have been linked to the CU Boulder community outbreak.
On a campus with about 35,000 students, that means roughly one out of every 29 has tested positive. Previously, the state health department had reported smaller individual outbreaks tied to CU Boulder, most of them in fraternities or sororities.
The total far exceeded the previous largest outbreak in the state, at the Sterling Correctional Facility, where 622 people have been infected infected and three have died.
On Monday, CU Boulder announced a transition to remote learning for at least two weeks in an effort to control the surging COVID-19 cases on campus. The move could become permanent if students continue spreading the virus via social gatherings, the university’s administration said.
Days earlier, university and local public health officials had questioned whether switching to remote learning was the answer, because they believed transmission of the highly contagious virus was happening at off-campus gatherings rather than in classrooms.
Before the change to remote learning, Boulder County public health officials recommended all students abide by a two-week self-quarantine that still allowed them to attend classes and go out for necessities, but asked them not to socialize in person.
CU officials said they were ramping up enforcement efforts, including increased police patrols in areas where parties were occurring. The university also forced nearly 200 students living in a Williams Village dorm to vacate their rooms with a couple day’s notice to make room for additional quarantine space on campus.
Chana Goussetis, spokeswoman for Boulder County Public Health, said it’s too early to tell if the strategies to curb transmission are working. Some people don’t immediately test positive because they don’t have high-enough concentrations of the virus in their noses, so the effects of an event where the virus spread might not show up until a week later.
“We are hopeful, though, that increased enforcement, testing and education, along with the temporary move to remote learning, will help to reverse the trend in new cases,” she said. “Anecdotal observations by our staff has shown a reduction in the number of large gatherings among CU students, so this is a good sign.”
The state health department’s weekly data also showed new outbreaks at two sororities at Colorado State University and five Greek life organizations at the University of Denver:
- Alpha Phi sorority, DU: four cases
- Chi Omega sorority, CSU: three cases
- Gamma Phi Beta sorority, CSU: five cases
- Gamma Phi Beta sorority, DU: three cases
- Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, DU: four cases
- Pi Kappa Phi fraternity, DU: three cases
- Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, DU: nine cases
Outbreaks at Regis University, Colorado College, CSU’s Kappa Sigma fraternity, an unspecified Colorado University sports team and DU’s Ritchie Center, Dimond Family residential village and gymnastics team remained stable, with no new cases reported in the last week.
An outbreak is considered over when four weeks have passed with no new cases linked to a specific location or event.
