NC State reports two new coronavirus clusters among sorority houses in Greek Village
Two N.C. State sororities have been identified as sites of new COVID-19 clusters Wednesday, the school announced in a campus-wide alert.
The two new clusters were found in the sorority houses of Alpha Delta Pi and Kappa Delta, the school reported. The Alpha Delta Pi house currently has seven positive cases and the Kappa Delta house has six positive cases. Both sorority houses are part of N.C. State’s Greek Village.
North Carolina defines a cluster as five or more cases in close proximity.
The new clusters come a day after N.C State reported its first cluster, which was connected to an off-campus house that held a gathering earlier this month. N.C. State has now identified three total clusters within the university’s community.
N.C. State does not plan to abandon on-campus classes, said chief communications officer and associate vice chancellor Brad Bohlander in an email Wednesday.
“At this time, N.C. State does not have plans to move to 100% online courses,” Bohlander told The News & Observer. “We continue to closely monitor the spread of the virus on and around our campus, and will make decisions about how to best move forward based on data and our commitment to protect the health of the entire campus community.”
Wednesday’s two new sorority clusters are in addition to eight positive cases previously reported within N.C. State’s Greek Village. University officials said those previous cases did not qualify as a cluster.
The Alpha Delta Pi house is owned by N.C. State and is leased by the sorority, while the Kappa Delta house is privately owned.
N.C. State’s COVID dashboard on Wednesday reported 28 new cases from the day before, 27 students and one university employee. That number is in addition to 42 cases reported in the last week, a university spokesperson said.
Going forward, the dashboard will be updated daily instead of weekly.
The school has updated its dashboard several times in the last three days, adding a cumulative case total late Wednesday night. That total is 176 cases since March, according to the dashboard.
“We are continually evaluating and updating the types of data on the testing and tracking page,” said university spokesperson Mick Kulikowski in an email. “The importance of self-reported data is critical, for example, as it drives much of our aggressive contact tracing efforts, which help keep the community safe.”
On Tuesday, N.C. State started including self-reported data in its dashboard, saying that 33 cases had been reported from outside the university’s testing system. On Wednesday, the number of self-reported cases rose to 57.
N.C. State’s Student Health Services runs on-campus testing, and on Wednesday reported 25 cases since March, up from 20 the day before.
Earlier this week, UNC-Chapel Hill decided to change course and move all classes online and clear out most university housing, responding to a spike in cases and multiple clusters.
As of Aug. 19, the state’s Health and Human Services department reports 14% of North Carolina’s coronavirus cases are among younger people, aged 18 to 24.
This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 5:24 PM.
