Coronavirus: The University of Alabama Report 500 Cases of the Virus, a Week After Classes Started

The University of Alabama recorded more than 500 cases of coronavirus across all campuses in a week after the fall semester’s commencement.

The University’s President, Stuart Bell, said that the institution had experienced an unacceptable rise in coronavirus cases. Despite the increase in the virus cases, Stuart Bell said the student behavior was not to be blamed for the rise.

“Our challenge is not the students,” Bell said during a press conference on Monday. “Our challenge is the virus, and there’s a difference, folks. What we have to do is identify where does the virus thrive and where does the virus spread and how we can work together with our students, with our faculty, and with our staff to make sure that we minimize those places, those incidents.”

However, according to the university’s COVID-19 dashboard, Tuscaloosa’s main campus has recorded 531 total cumulative cases for students, faculty, and staff. In comparison, Birmingham’s campus has 6 and 21 cases among students and employees, respectively, and the Huntsville campus has 8. The coronavirus positivity rate on the University of Alabama campuses sits around 1.2%, with over 46,150 tests and 566 positive cases.

In an email message sent from Stuart Bell to all students, faculty, and staff of the university regarding the COVID-19 situation, he wrote: “Despite the robust testing, training, health and safety measures we carefully and clearly implemented, there is an unacceptable rise in positive COVID cases on our campus.”

He said that testing, mask-wearing, social distancing, personal hygiene, and compliance with crowd size limits would be enforced throughout the semester. Bell also added that violations to our health and safety protocols, both on and off-campus, are subject to harsh disciplinary action, including suspension from UA.

The university’s police officers will monitor restaurants, off-campus residences, and Greek housing to ensure patrons and residents follow coronavirus safety guidelines, Bell also added.

Furthermore, it has been a challenging start for universities that have resumed physical classes this year.

The University of North Carolina and the University of Notre Dame have both halted physical classes within the days of commencement after each recorded 400 cases of COVID-19 since mid-August.

On Monday, Ohio State University suspended over 200 students who violated the school’s Covid-19 regulations around socializing.

Moreover, at least 5.7 million people in the U.S. have tested positive for the coronavirus, while at least 177,500 patients have died, according to the New York Times’ database.