COLUMBIA, S.C. — The University of South Carolina placed three additional Greek Village houses in quarantine Thursday after several residents tested positive for the coronavirus.
According to USC, the students who live in the houses will remain in quarantine for up to 14 days. The school did not identify the houses, or which ones where sororities or fraternities.
This decision comes in the same week after the university placed two other sorority houses in quarantine on Monday after several students tested positive.
Students who test positive are relocated to isolation or have the option to return home. This follows Monday’s action to place two other houses into quarantine after three or more residents tested positive.
In all cases, students were either asymptomatic or experiencing very minor COVID-19 symptoms prior to their tests and none require hospitalization.
According to the university, the decision to quarantine students was made in consultation with SC Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC.)
The school sent a note to students this week that said that students who violate quarantine will be place on immediate interim suspension. They will be barred from campus and classes until the resolution of the case.
All students in quarantine are provided with extensive support from the university. To learn more, visit Student Health Services site.
The university has an interactive web page where active COVID-19 cases can be tracked.
There are currently 188 active student cases of the coronavirus, 1 active faculty cases. To date, since the beginning of the beginning of testing on August 10, there have been a total of 244 students and 11 faculty testing positive for the virus.
The Dean of the College of Pharmacy, Stephen Cutler, said because the school is doing saliva-based testing they are able to catch cases quicker.
"The saliva test allows us the opportunity to get the results back very quickly, we can get results back in less that 24 hours, and the speed in which we get those results affords us an opportunity to identify those individuals that have COVID who might not know it or might have mild symptoms, so we can control the spread of this virus," Cutler said.
Cutler said they are encouraging students to get tested at least once a week.
"The saliva based test that we have available at USC puts us at the front of other institutions of higher learning across the United States in order to understand what the health is of our institution," Cutler said. "There are a few other institutions that have a similar type of test, but we feel we're going to have a better approach than most other institutions as we repopulate the university."
The school just started the fall semester with in-person classes, but students at the Greek Villages began moving in almost two weeks ago. Other on campus housing has been back for over a week.