More COVID-19 cases confirmed at University of Michigan
Four students living in three University of Michigan residence halls are the latest to have tested positive for COVID-19.
A single resident in both South Quad Residence Hall and North Quad Residence Hall, and two residents of Bursley Residence Hall tested positive over the weekend, according to university officials.
The students are no longer in their rooms, which have been disinfected, UM spokeswoman Kim Broekhuizen wrote in an email Monday.
“University Housing notified residents and staff via email and individuals identified as close contacts are contacted separately by UM’s Environment, Health and Safety department working in conjunction with the Washtenaw County Health Department,” Broekhuizen wrote. “Any residents who were not directly contacted by the health department are considered to be a low exposure risk.”
The additional positive cases brings the total to 35 student cases since Aug. 23, according to the university’s COVID-19 dashboard. Non-student cases were at 24 for the same time period. There have been 300 student and non-student cases on campus since March, according to the dashboard.
According to the latest data on the dashboard, UM Quarantine & Isolation Housing is at 8.5% with 14 people in isolation due to a positive test result and 37 in quarantine due to exposure or awaiting results.
The news of additional positive cases comes as a union representing more than a 1,000 graduate student instructors and staff assistants at the University of Michigan strikes against in-person classes.
“This is a historic moment: we are striking at the beginning of the year, in the midst of a pandemic, to protect our whole community,” the Graduate Employees’ Organization 3550 wrote on its Facebook page Sunday.
Among the group’s list of demands for graduate employees are a universal right to work remotely without documentation and the resources to do so, unconditional support in the form of extensions to degree timelines and funding for graduate students and for UM to cut all ties with police, including the Ann Arbor Police Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In response, university officials have said that public employee strikes are illegal in Michigan.
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