College Students Test Positive For Coronavirus, Continue Going To Parties Anyway
College students in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, continued to attend parties even after testing positive for the coronavirus, a city official confirmed Tuesday.
Multiple students flouted 14-day self-quarantining measures aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19, Tuscaloosa Fire Chief Randy Smith told a pre-meeting of the Tuscaloosa City Council, multiple local news outlets reported.
“We had seen over the last few weeks parties going on in [Tuscaloosa] county, or throughout the city and county in several locations where students or kids would come in with known positives,” said Smith.
“We thought that was kind of a rumor at first,” he acknowledged. “We did some additional research. Not only did the doctor’s offices help confirm it but the state confirmed they also had the same information.”
Check out Smith’s comments here:
JUST IN: During a pre-council meeting this afternoon, Tuscaloosa’s fire chief reports that over the past few weeks students with known positive COVID-19 cases were showing up at parties in the city and county: pic.twitter.com/EUIe5JoSvn
— Josh Gauntt (@joshg_TV) June 30, 2020
Tuscaloosa lawmakers later voted to mandate the wearing of face masks in public. Smith did not say how many infected students had ignored self-isolating rules. He also did not name the colleges they attended.
The University of Alabama, Stillman College and Shelton State Community College are located in the city. The students who tested positive could have attended other colleges. Last month, several University of Alabama football players tested positive for COVID-19.
Alabama is among a number of states to this week see record numbers of new infections. The virus has infected more than 38,000 statewide and killed at least 950. In Tuscaloosa County, there have been almost 2,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 38 deaths resulting from the disease.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
