80 students quarantined from COVID-19 outbreak at Mississippi State fraternity, sorority houses

Published 2:33 pm Monday, August 24, 2020

Two Greek Life houses at Mississippi State University have seen outbreaks of the COVID-19 coronavirus, and a total of 80 students are evacuating the houses and must quarantine for 14 days, MSU Chief Communications Officer Sid Salter confirmed to the Columbus Dispatch Friday.

Salter declined to provide the names of the two Greek organizations in question, but students confirmed them to be the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, known as Fiji, and the Phi Mu sorority.

Salter also did not say how many cases there are in the two houses, but Mississippi State Department of Health — which is investigating the cases at the Greek houses — considers three or more positive cases to be an outbreak.

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The 80 affected students have the option of returning to their homes or staying in either of the two Starkville hotels MSU rented for the fall semester as quarantine sites. The Comfort Suites on Russell Street and the Hampton Inn on Blackjack Road have a total of 155 rooms, and Salter said the number of occupied rooms “literally changes hourly.”

MSU has staffed the hotels with employees from the departments of Housing and Residence Life and custodial services, and employees of the Longest Student Health Center will monitor quarantined students’ health on site.