The omicron variant has started to show its colors as Cornell University records a 20x surge in the Covid-19 cases within a week.
Cornell University has released a “red alert” for its students while moving all the classes and the exams online, it canceled all the on-campus activities and events while shutting down all the facilities.
The Covid-19 cases surged by more than 20 times in a week and to make the situation worse, a significant number of cases were caused by the newly detected omicron variant.
The university reported 276 covid-19 cases on the campus on Monday. In fact, to make matters worse, the total number of cases reported on Saturday and Monday surpassed the total number of cases reported in the first 10 days of December combined.
“Since our Saturday message, our surveillance testing has continued to identify the rapid spread of COVID-19 among our student population,” University President Martha Pollack said in a statement posted online Tuesday. “While faculty and staff case numbers currently remain low, just last evening our COVID-19 testing lab team identified evidence of the highly contagious Omicron variant in a significant number of Monday’s positive student samples.”
Cornell University released a new set of rules to combat this new wave of Covid-19 outbreak. They are:
· All university activities involving undergraduates (including events and social gatherings) and all university-sponsored events (including winter celebrations) are canceled.
· The December 18 recognition ceremony for December graduates is canceled.
· Students utilizing Cornell Dining are strongly encouraged to “grab-and-go”; if you must eat near others, please do so at a distance.
· Libraries are closed to students.
· Athletics competitions on Sunday are canceled. Fitness centers and gyms are closed to students.
· Offices and labs remain open, but undergraduate students should not participate in any work-study or lab work.
The CDC stated that the presence of the omicron variant is rapidly increasing across the country but it is reported that New York and New Jersey are recording more cases as compared to the rest of America.
The rate in New York and New Jersey is 4 times more than the rest of the country.
