Arkansas State University (A-State) has reported seven positive cases of coronavirus, as of June 4.
Chancellor Kelly Damphousse released a letter to the A-State community this morning, clarifying that these cases are all from student-athletes. The campus will remain open.
“As we have discussed before, this is a day that we knew would come, not just at A-State, but for colleges and universities across America,” Damphousse said in the letter. “To prepare for this inevitability, we have been developing COVID-19 mitigation procedures since we first became aware of the possibility of coronavirus appearing in our community in March.”
The university reported that all seven students continue to be asymptomatic and will begin to self-isolate for 14 days, either in their residence hall or at home. Damphousse also noted that A-State will be conducting contact tracing on all students who have contracted the virus.
In addition, the letter outlined the university’s COVID-19 mitigation procedures, stressing the importance of social distancing and face coverings, which A-State is providing for all students and employees.
The university announced in May that the majority of their summer classes will be taught online, while certain labs and practicums were to be taught face-to-face in their second summer term. On May 4, the ASU System announced that its member institutions were planning to hold in-person classes in fall 2020.
Arkansas State University reported its first positive case in April.
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