COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The University of Maryland’s flagship campus will resume in-person instruction on Monday after having suspended live classes for a week due to COVID-19 outbreaks.
School leaders also announced an order requiring residents in student housing to “sequester in place" has been lifted. University President Darryll Pines and the chief medical officer for the university’s health center credited the campus community for working to curb the spread.
Their announcement says the number of cases has slowed and the testing positive rate is low. But new cases reported daily to the school remains high compared to earlier in February.
The University's COVID-19 Dashboard reported 95 new cases the week of Feb. 14 to Feb. 20. That does not include 121 unverified tests that were self-reported by people who had been on the UMD campus or the greater College Park area in the last 14 days.
Students living in residence hall dorms and on-campus fraternity and sorority houses had to "sequester-in-place" starting at noon last Saturday. The school said that meant students were instructed to stay in their rooms as much as they could.
“It said you know you have to quarantine for the time being and you’re not really allowed to go anywhere, food and fresh air that’s about it. And hearing those words I thought are we in college or are we in prison,” UMD freshman Lauren Haffner said.
Haffner said she had been made aware of COVID-19 cases on campus and in her dorm in the days prior to the university asking students to sequester in place.
“Earlier that week we heard there was an outbreak in my dorm on the third floor so we were freaking out about that. We're like, oh no, our hall is going to get shut down what's going to happen, and then it turns out that the whole school got shut down, which was crazy,” Haffner said.
People on-campus are still required to be tested for COVID-19 twice a month.
The college also says students living off-campus in the greater College Park area are strongly encouraged to stay home as much as possible.
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