On Wednesday, the University of Michigan notified students to stay at home. According to the official statement, this decision has been taking to hold back the spread of a new contagious variant of Covid-19. Later Washtenaw County Health Department supported the decision by saying that schools have our full support.”
As per an official statement, “Students are being asked to remain at their campus-area addresses and to not gather with others outside of their household members”.
“Students are permitted to leave their residence only to participate in limited activities, including in-person classes, work or research that cannot be completed remotely, obtaining food and medical care and other approved activities.”
The new strain of the virus is more contagious compared to the previous, and it has public health officials on edge. If the new variant breaks out, illness could spread swiftly even as more vaccines are administered across the nation.
During the study sessions, the University of Michigan becomes the home of more than 31,000 undergraduates and nearly 17,000 graduate students.
Nowadays, approx 90% class are already virtual. “The aim of Wednesday’s recommendation is focused on keeping students safe from all the gatherings outside of classrooms.” health department spokeswoman Susan Ringler Cerniglia said.
“We are very concerned about the potential for this variant to spread quickly,” Washtenaw health officer Jimena Loveluck said in a statement. “We are working closely with the university to take coordinated steps to control the current outbreak and understand the situation more fully.”
She further said that “The students are the future of the nation. Therefore, we advise them to stay safe at home unless they’re going out to buy food or medicine, seeing a doctor, attending worship services or exercising outdoors.”
Later the University of Michigan released a statement that says, “public health and medical professionals agree that now is the time to implement these additional temporary measures before the spread of this more infectious version of Covid-19 threatens to overwhelm our ability to address the virus,”
“Pressing the pause button on nonessential activities will help us protect each other from illness and preserve our ability to eventually resume more normal activities as we continue our vaccination efforts.”
Last week, the school’s Wolverines athletic teams also stopped all the games and practices for the next 14 days on account of Covid-19. Unfortunately, it will impact Michigan’s men’s and women’s basketball teams and men’s ice hockey squad national ranking.
