Alexis Rapoza
News Editor
PROVIDENCE, R.I., — Three additional students have tested positive for the Coronavirus at Rhode Island College within the last two weeks.
On September 24, one on-campus student tested positive and five students are in mandatory quarantine. Additionally, on September 26, two more students tested positive for the coronavirus, one on-campus student and one off-campus student. Due to contact tracing conducted by RIC, two students are in isolation on-campus, nine other students are in quarantine on-campus and one is in quarantine off-campus. RIC administration claims that at least one student reached a positive test result as a result of ‘low-threshold symptomatic testing’.
Since the beginning of the school year, five Rhode Island College students have tested positive for COVID-19. In addition, eight off-campus students tested positive prior to the August start of the school year.
Colleges and universities throughout the United States have been experiencing a significant increase in coronavirus cases since the beginning of September. According to the New York Times, over 130,000 cases can be directly attributed to spread amongst students and faculty on campus. At Providence College 221 students and three faculty members tested positive. The University of Rhode Island has had nearly 150 positive coronavirus cases and Brown University has had 22 cases since the beginning of the year.
In response to nearly three dozen positive cases at Johnson and Wales in less than a week Governor Gina Raimondo announced on Wednesday that she would be convening a task-force targeting outbreaks on college campuses. Gov. Raimondo stated that she believes that the state government needs to approach reaching college students differently. More information on the task force is said to be coming this week.