Iona College, LIU Post Report Coronavirus Upticks
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Local colleges reported dozens of new coronavirus cases Monday.
A Westchester County college is temporarily canceling in-person classes after a rise in COVID cases.
The infections appear to be connected to the athletic teams.
Iona College in New Rochelle reported 65 new COVID-19 cases on campus Monday.
Officials believe there's not widespread transmission, but it has raised concerns well beyond campus, reported CBS2's Aundrea Cline-Thomas.
For the next two weeks, all classes at Iona College will be online.
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"What they did was they had certain dorms go in for testing. So they only told us what our results were for the coronavirus," said freshman Joseph Abab.
The increase was first identified among student athletes. Now seven teams have positive cases.
"It seems irresponsible I guess to expect the students not to party, not to coordinate or hang out with each other because there's nothing else to do because of COVID," said senior Kobe Washington.
Contact tracers are tracking down everyone affected who is required to isolate or quarantine.
The rest of the students are out and about in the community.
"It's college kids, so it's going to be difficult to sort of isolate them. Honestly I think they should've gone remote and not opened up the college," said New Rochelle resident Hector Olivieri.
There's already heightened sensitivity on the campus. After all, New Rochelle was one of the first COVID clusters in the country.
"There's no indication as of now that this outbreak has spread to the the broader communit. It appears to be confined entirely to the student body," said New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson.
Still, the mayor said this serves as a warning.
"This is an indication that COVID-19 is very much present in our region. So we continue to remind residents not to let down their guard," he said.
Cline-Thomas was told some students responsible for the activity that caused the spread will undergo a judicial review, and that sanctions will be determined accordingly.
Meanwhile, LIU Post, in Brookville, N.Y., said it is seeing an increase in cases due to several off-campus gatherings that also involved members of athletic teams.
So far, 14 LIU Post students tested positive for the virus.
Earlier, Marist College announced campus-wide restrictions and moved to remote classes due to an uptick in cases linked to an off-campus gathering.
Marist did not say how many positive tests there were.
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