School hasn’t even started yet, and Northern State University here in Aberdeen has a coroanvirus outbreak:
Eight students of Northern State University in Aberdeen and a youth who attended a recent athletic camp on the NSU campus have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a university spokesperson.
…So far, all of those with confirmed cases of COVID-19 have had no symptoms or only mild symptoms of the potentially deadly disease, [NSU VP of enrollment, communications, and marketing Justin] Fraase said. The university was formally made aware of the positive tests by the state on Tuesday, July 28.
People who tested positive were present at three recent youth athletic camps for girls: a volleyball camp on July 20-12, a basketball camp on July 23-24, and a soccer camp on July 24-26, Fraase said.
The NSU students who became infected do not live on campus but likely live in the larger Aberdeen community, Fraase said [Bart Pfankuch, “Covid-19 Outbreak Infects Students at Northern State University in Aberdeen,” South Dakota News Watch, 2020.07.29].
So we can’t even get a fraction of the campus population together for temporary camps without coronavirus spreading. NSU is thus changing its plans, right?
Nah, because those infections might have happened off-campus, so on we go:
NSU is hosting youth basketball and football camps on campus this week, and those events are continuing as scheduled, with masks being worn by attendees. The infected students are isolating off campus and are not attending those ongoing camps, Fraase said.
…At this point, it isn’t clear if the virus was spread on campus or off campus among the students, Fraase said.
“They may be living here because of their affiliation to Northern, and we can’t say definitively, but right now we’re not able to correlate these back to on-campus activities,” he said. “It’s possible the spread took place outside the boundaries of campus.”
Campus activities will continue as planned, including visits by prospective students and summer learning, research and athletic activities, Fraase said. The outbreak also is not anticipated to affect the university’s plans to welcome about 3,600 students back on Aug. 17 for the fall semester and the start of classes on Aug. 19.
“Today’s news does not impact plans for the return to campus or athletic plans that are ongoing,” he said. “We feel very strongly we have taken the necessary steps to ensure we are slowing the spread of covid on campus and in our community” [Pfankuch, 2020.07.29].
Mask up, everybody!
Update 07:29 CDT: I open my local paper and learn that Northern has suspended on-campus workouts… but on Monday, the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference said its member schools can’t start practice until September 2 and won’t play until September 26.
I was disappointed to know NSU was dealing with the described outbreak, but I was also really surprised to learn that the campus was still hosting camps. In Brookings, SDSU placed a hold on all campus gatherings (all summer camps and conferences included) through August 15, and they did so (I think) in May. Also, in-person Admissions visits have been verboten at State since the spring. I wonder if NSU or SDSU is the outlier on hosting summer visitors?
Too early of a morning for these kinds of numbers from drumpf body count…..
Coronavirus Cases:
4,569,173
Deaths:
153,864
You might think moar people are getting sick and dying before this stuff magically disappears. Is it possible drumpf believes once it disappears all the dead return to life and vote for him? Could he be that insanely delusional?
Noem Nothing made national news again and too still yet….
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-south-dakota-governor-kristi-noem-disparages-masks-students/
NOem and Rep Gohmert are birds of a stupid feather.
Perhaps Northern State University could consider holding classes at Camp Judson, west of Keystone, the latest SD covid hotspot.
Look at the bright side of the universities and high schools holding in-person classes this fall — it will accelerate the demise of fat Nixon voters when the baby boomers either die off, become ill, or early retire and move.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/bye-boomer-the-coming-cull-of-workers-over-50-2020-07-29?mod=home-page
Trump: delay election.
Herman Cain: dead.
John Lewis: inspired by our resistance.
Bolton: disbanded federal pandemic agency pre-pandemic, before allowing Trump to sidestep impeachment.
Barr: skilled spineless Catholic extremist AG destroying Dept of Justice, and faking emergency in Portland ect. as he calls out dogs on BLM protesters.
Acting loyalist puppet agency directors: clueless.
Roberts: spineless hand wringing lap dog lets Trump off every subpoena leash before the election-thinks assisting minority gives chief a pass.
Cain killed Abel and trump killed Cain in Tulsa.
Coronavirus Cases:
4,599,185
Deaths:
154,521
Could see 4.6 million cases and 155k deaths before this evening.
Nice damp sweaty sports facilities and K-12 schools full of little petrie dishes (kids) coughing on each other and their teachers. What else could go wrong?
2,216,659 recovered Covid cases
Meanwhile, Madison Daily Leader (finally) ran a front-page story on COVID in Bethel Lutheran Home – 11 residents, 7 staff, and 1 death. Another outcome from the July 4th parties some high school kids couldn’t stop themselves from having.
And a large new study from South Korea says that “Children younger than 10 transmit to others much less often than adults do, but the risk is not zero. And those between the ages of 10 and 19 can spread the virus at least as well as adults do.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/18/health/coronavirus-children-schools.html?surface=home-discovery-vi-prg&fellback=false&req_id=622760520&algo=identity&imp_id=382338208&action=click&module=Science%20%20Technology&pgtype=Homepage
Which I could have told anyone was true, from my years teaching at SDSU, where I never went a semester without catching a cold, thanks to my sneezing, coughing, wet-headed, barefoot-in-winter students.
COVID spike coming the Black Hills . . . according to Monument Health’s VP of medical affairs.
https://www.bhpioneer.com/covid-19/covid-spike-in-black-hills-coming-q-a-with-dr-shankar-kurra-about-the-future/article_0ab79acc-d1c8-11ea-8f92-9fabfa193143.html
drumpf body count does it again, new milestones fall by the way…
\
Coronavirus Cases:
4,626,699
Deaths:
154,986
Tim H: why don’t you talk to some “recovered ” victims of this virus and see what kind of after-effects they are suffering. Methinks they count the ones that are shooed out of the hospitals to make room for more new patients as “recovered’! But they suffer bor months after of all kinds of after effects.
Let’s make it official…
Coronavirus Cases:
4,634,472
Deaths:
155,281
Unlike the Limbo, leave us see how high we can go because the alleged leader of this fractured nation refuses to act like a leader.
Absolutely correct Jake. Tim H is wrong. The correct term is no longer Covid positive. My friend spent 8 days on a respirator at Monument Health. He is a strong healthy non smoker with no underlying health issues. He now tests negative but believe me, he is far from ‘recovered’. The science and medical studies on the effects have a long way to go because of the newness of this virus. Fake news Tim H.
“Campus activities will continue as planned.”
What is wrong with them, holding youth camps, campus tours, doing things As Usual?!? This nation has never been less Usual in my life time. Don’t they understand at NSU that 2020 is not usual, not normal? Don’t they understand that pretending it is doesn’t make it so?
Don’t any of the anti science, anti mask people know that pretending does not make it real? Any of them?
Debbo, no, they don’t get it that pretending it’s not real doesn’t make it not real. They’re toddlers at heart, having temper tantrums to get their way, and saying, “NO NO NO NO!” to everything they don’t like.
And they’re whistling past the graveyard, telling themselves that it won’t happen here, it won’t happen to them, it won’t happen under their watch.
Mississippi just opened schools and now they are quarantined…Who could’ve seen that?
Check out old Taters with his mask on…
https://www.mississippifreepress.org/4806/as-mississippi-schools-reopen-pediatric-covid-crisis-threatens-families-teachers/
A friend moved from Colorado to Mississippi. (I know!) She opened an Air BnB and was doing well the first year, then Covid. Now she is questioning her decision. I questioned her decision when she first broached it. She grew up on a SD farm so should know better.