A group of sorority sisters are quarantined together after their chapter reported 23 positive coronavirus tests at Oklahoma State University.
The outbreak, at an off-campus sorority house near the university’s Stillwater location, was detected by rapid-antigen testing done at an off-campus clinic, the university said in a statement Saturday. The university and the Payne County Health Department are monitoring the chapter and performing contact tracing.
“Due to the nature of this situation, the entire chapter house is in isolation or quarantine and will be prohibited from leaving the facility,” the school said. “One member of the sorority who lives elsewhere is among those who tested positive and will also remain in isolation.”
Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
Greek life has been a source of numerous coronavirus cases in the last few weeks as the country debates reopening schools for in-person learning.
Fraternity rush parties at the University of Mississippi were linked to a spike in cases throughout the state in June.
At least 40 people contracted the virus at the University of Southern California’s fraternity row last month, according to the Los Angeles Times.
A “cluster” of cases was also reported at a Sigma Nu chapter at the University of North Carolina, according to an alert the school posted Saturday. The university did not identify how many students were infected, but it said the state’s health department defined a “cluster” as five or more cases that are deemed in close proximity, in this case in a single residential dwelling.
And 144 fraternity house residents had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Aug. 5 at the University of Washington‘s Seattle campus, according to a statement from the school two weeks ago. Ten additional cases were tied to the fraternity residents.
The school first identified 38 students who tested positive in connection with the fraternity homes at the end of June and asked the students to self-isolate. The University of Washington reported that about 1,000 students lived in 25 fraternity houses in the neighborhood north of its campus.
A total of 276 students and staff have tested positive at the university’s Seattle location, according to its testing results page.
