The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/author/aniloza/)
As Cornell students returned from Thanksgiving travel to wrap up their semester in Ithaca, it became home to one of the country’s “first superspreader” events of the new Omicron variant.
On Tuesday, Tompkins County marked a grim milestone in the pandemic — reaching over 1,000 active COVID cases in the county.
With 930 positive COVID cases detected on campus this week, final exams shifting modality and winter break fast approaching, the situation on campus is rapidly evolving. Here’s what we know so far.
As active student cases have reached 469, Cornell is shutting down campus 21 months after March 2020, leaving students to scramble in the middle of finals week.
As Cornell students now navigate both in-person and online final exams, cases have skyrocketed to a record-high 469 active student cases on campus — the highest number of positives on the Ithaca campus since the start of the pandemic.
On its first day of finals, Cornell’s growing COVID spike worsened with the University identifying, but not yet reporting, nearly 300 new cases — including the introduction of the new Omicron variant.
In this episode of Suncast, Emma and Anil break down why it’s important to get a flu vaccine and how the University handled the COVID-19 outbreak at the start of the semester, featuring an undergraduate student, a Ph.D. student and Prof. Beth Rhoades, immunology. Aimee Eicher ‘24 and Kaitlyn Lee ‘25 contributed reporting to this episode. https://open.spotify.com/episode/1IgUK6zKc0PWcgWbNnnv50?si=UAjA7PD4TyO4YzEtBT0wYQ
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
E: Welcome to another episode of the Cornell Daily Sun’s official podcast, Suncast. In this episode, Anil and I will be revisiting COVID on campus, talking to students about their experience in quarantine and university support, protective immunity, and comparing the COVID vaccine to the annual flu vaccine, as well as going into how the flu shot works. I’m your co-host, Emma Rosenbaum, and I’m a senior editor on The Sun. A: And I’m the other co host, Anil, and I am The Sun’s assistant managing editor.
Tara Atluri ’24 was a sophomore in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences who had a “deep love for plants and nature,” CALS Dean Benjamin Houlton wrote to the CALS community, and Ryan Lombardi, vice president for student and campus life, later wrote in a University statement Monday evening.
Following five hours of shelter-in-place orders for North Campus, Cayuga Heights and other areas within Tompkins County, Cornell has lifted the notice for the Ithaca campus.
Here’s what we know following the North Campus shelter in place order.