Report: Mississippi State quarantines 80 students after COVID-19 outbreak

Published 4:39 pm Friday, August 21, 2020

Approximately 80 students at Mississippi State University have been evacuated from two Greek life houses and told to quarantine for 14 days after an outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus, a Columbus newspaper reported.

The Commercial Dispatch said MSU’s top communications officer Sid Salter confirmed the outbreaks and the evacuations.

The exact number of students to test positive was not clear, but the state’s health department considers three or more positive COVID-19 cases to be an outbreak.

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The names of the Greek organizations under evacuation was not reported by the school.

Affected students were reportedly given the option of returning to their homes or moving into local hotels that Mississippi State has reserved and staffed for such outbreaks.

Other outbreaks have been reported at the Mississippi University for Women and the University of Mississippi in Oxford. All three universities had either just started classes or their students had just moved back onto campus.