Omicron Variant Flares Up At Cornell University, Over 900 Students Infected with Covid-19. This Aug. 28, 1973, file photo, shows McGraw Hall on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Jonathan Jay Fink)
The omicron variant of covid-19 has flared up at Cornell University, which reported 930 coronavirus cases among faculty and students from Dec. 7-13 — most of them, omicron cases — university officials said. Of the 930 cases, 898 were students with no evidence of severe illness reported in any of the infected students to date.
“While faculty and staff case numbers currently remain low, just last evening our covid-19 testing lab team identified evidence of the highly contagious Omicron variant in a significant number of Monday’s positive student samples,” Cornell President Martha Pollack said in a letter on Dec. 14.
The school released the data through its Covid-19 Tracker on its website. Most of the cases were found in fully vaccinated students, according to Joel Malina, vice president for university relations.
“Virtually every case of the Omicron variant to date has been found in fully vaccinated students, a portion of whom had also received a booster shot,” Malina said in a statement. “We have not seen evidence of significant disease in our students to date.”
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Due to the rising number of cases, the school moved to alert level red, closed its Ithaca, New York campus and moved finals online. It also paused all campus activities, closed the libraries and canceled the recognition ceremony for December graduates.
“I want to make clear that our evidence of Omicron is preliminary. PCR testing has identified its hallmark (the so-called S-gene dropout) in a substantial number of virus samples,” Pollack continued. “While we must await confirmatory sequencing information to be sure that the source is Omicron, we are proceeding as if it is.”
According to CNN, the Ithaca campus has 25,600 students. Pollack said the measures are being taken to protect students and employees of the university.
“While I want to provide reassurance that, to date, we have not seen severe illness in any of our infected students, we do have a role to play in reducing the spread of the disease in the broader community,” Pollack said.
