The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/author/aniloza/page/5/)
In March, everyone had to make a sudden addition to their daily wardrobe: masks. As students and professors prepare to enter the lecture hall, masks and physical distancing will be the norm, so what masks should students wear?
In June, Cornell modeled for a potential campus reopening, when cases nation wide seemed to have plateaued nationally. But since then, the U.S. has seen almost 3 million more COVID-19 cases and 60,000 deaths. How is that model faring days before classes start?
On Friday, Tompkins County Health Department identified the first cluster of COVID-19 cases at Cornell, following several small social gatherings where people did not social distance or wear masks. The county now has 18 active cases.
The Tompkins County Health Department reported that someone who rode the TCAT route 30 bus on Wednesday tested positive for COVID-19.
Cornell recently committed to considering a shutdown if campus reached 250 cases in a week, but a recent decision by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) may not make that feasible.
On Tuesday, Cornell released its COVID-19 testing dashboard, which provides data from Cornell’s COVID-19 testing program — including the total number of tests, the number of positive tests and Cornell’s COVID-19 alert level.
Following concerns over campus reopening and the state of residential life, Provost Michael Kotlikoff met with members of the University Assembly Friday to field questions on housing, testing and potential triggers for a campus closure.
Cornell finds itself on an ever-shrinking list of colleges persisting with plans to conduct a hybrid semester, with both the University of Pennsylvania and Brown University retreating from such decisions on Tuesday.
In an effort to frequently test students in the fall, Cornell will repurpose part of a center in the College of Veterinary Medicine into a COVID-19 testing lab.
A recent addendum to the contentious reopening model reaffirmed Cornell’s decision to proceed with a hybrid model as Ithaca saw a significant spike in COVID-19 cases attributed to a party.