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Syracuse University is “cautiously optimistic” that it has contained two emerging coronavirus clusters, a university official said Monday.

The university has conducted over 3,000 COVID-19 tests and identified over 150 close contacts associated with the two clusters, said Vice Chancellor Mike Haynie, who has led SU’s COVID-19 response, in a campus-wide email. The clusters were associated with two separate off-campus gatherings, one at Orange Crate Brewing Company and one at an unrecognized Greek organization.

Though SU has likely contained the clusters, the campus community can’t let its guard down, Haynie said.

The university first announced the clusters on Thursday, when it confirmed 21 new cases of the virus. University officials announced Friday that the clusters could result in a campus shutdown and that SU would identify and punish students involved in the off-campus gatherings.

As of Monday, SU reported 41 active COVID-19 cases among students and employees in central New York, with 188 students in quarantine.

The infections come weeks after SU reported its first cluster in early October. The university reported 99 active cases among students and employees in central New York during the height of the first cluster, which was associated with at least one party at an apartment complex on Walnut Avenue.

SU’s second cluster also comes as COVID-19 cases in Onondaga County continue to rise. The county on Friday confirmed 99 new cases, the highest number reported within a day since the beginning of the pandemic.

The university will continue to enhance its testing throughout the week, Haynie said. Students who are contacted by the Barnes Center at The Arch or the COVID-19 Project Management Office should participate in the contact tracing process “with a sense of urgency,” he said.

“(I)t is critical that all of us—students, faculty and staff—remain vigilant,” Haynie said. “We can do this, but only together.”

Published on November 2, 2020 at 6:39 pm

Contact Mira: mlberenb@syr.edu