MANSFIELD, Conn. — 35 new COVID-19 cases in two days prompted UConn officials to place five residence halls under residential quarantine. Those students can't attend in-person classes or events. And all other residence halls can no longer have guests.
"I think we've done well across the board, but I think people are loosening up because of springtime," said William Zeppieri a sophomore at UConn.
It comes after a large party last weekend that State Police had to break up. In a letter to the university community, the Dean of Students said the spike in cases may be related to parties. The letter reads in part: "These gatherings increase the risk of exposure and spread, which is much more likely to occur when we don’t follow universal precautions such as wearing masks and keeping physical distance."
"I know there's a side of people that don't really care and there's a side of people who you know wanted to come back to school that obviously are being as COVID-safe as possible," said Zeppieri.
More cases among young people is a trend being seen statewide. The Department of Public Health says the age group with the highest number of cases is 20 to 29. Students at UConn say vaccination efforts on campus are helping to move them in the right direction.
"Everybody here is actually really willing to get their vaccines so I wouldn't be surprised if next semester is as normal as possible," said Avis Ebron, a senior.
"Hopefully with the vaccination rollout we should be able to like to increase our capacity of on-campus students," said Mirghani Mohamed, a senior.
UConn's spring break begins next week, and classes will remain online for the rest of the semester following the break.