Appalachian State University is putting extra safety measures in place to help reduce the spread of the coronavirus, including mandated testing in dorms with COVID clusters.
University officials say 70% of active cases are in students who live off-campus, but they're worried about recent residence hall clusters and are closely watching test result data.
“While we remain concerned about clusters in our residence halls, those teaching, learning, and working on campus have noted campus facilities remain at a low density, and our data show campus services are being utilized at greatly reduced rates as compared to the same time last year,” says Appalachian State University Chancellor Sheri Everts.
She shared the latest information in a weekly update.
Everts announced some new actions. On-campus students can voluntarily opt-out of their housing contracts if they want to return to their hometowns and the university is implementing mandatory, large-scale testing in residence halls with active clusters.
Mountaineer football practice has been suspended until further notice and the football game against Georgia Southern University, scheduled for Oct. 14, has been postponed.
Everts says the university is also taking extra steps off-campus. Those include partnering with AppHealthCare to implement community-based testing at off-campus apartment complexes with large populations of students.
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