An IU spokesperson said that he expected the university to release detailed information about the number of students in quarantine later Monday.
(WFIU/WTIU News)
Indiana University is instructing a total of 14 Greek houses to quarantine due to positive COVID-19 tests, the university reported Monday.
IU has directed all of the affected Greek houses as well as the Evans Scholars and Christian Student Fellowship houses to suspend in-person organizational activities, other than dining and housing for live-in members, until at least Sept. 14.
The Greek chapters are Alpha Delta Pi, Alpha Sigma Phi, Alpha Xi Delta, Beta Theta Pi, Delta Gamma, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Phi Gamma Delta, Phi Kappa Psi, Pi Beta Phi, Pi Kappa Phi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Chi, Theta Chi, and Zeta Tau Alpha.
IU has not reported that any residence halls were included in these measures.
IU has tested over 30,000 arriving students in the first three weeks of August. Its online dashboard reports that about 1% of those tests returned a positive result.
But over the past week, IU started focusing tests on students living in residence halls and Greek housing on all campuses. Those results, posted Monday, showed a positivity rate of 8.1% among Greek houses, while residence halls had a positivity rate of under 2%.
“The rate of positive results within Greek houses is concerning; the rate in our residence halls shows a slight uptick above on-arrival testing, although similar to what other universities with robust testing programs have seen,” the university said. “Therefore, we will focus additional testing on dorms with higher rates this week as well as the Greek system.”
It says the overall positivity rate in this type of testing is about 3.1%. It attributes those results to previously reported Greek and communal housing increases.
Members of Greek organizations elsewhere in Indiana are also being asked to quarantine.
At Purdue University in West Lafayette, 10 members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon have tested positive and were living in campus housing set aside for isolation, The Associated Press reported over the weekend. Another 55 members at the off-campus fraternity house were in quarantine and locked down for the first two weeks of the semester.
Across that campus, more than 40 members of a housing cooperative were in quarantine after two members tested positive, the AP reported.
The latest measures come amid record-setting positive cases in Monroe County.
The Indiana State Department of Health reported 56 new cases in the county on Monday, setting a daily record and increasing the total to 1,150.
That record number of cases in a day eclipsed the 38 new cases reported Sunday.
The county has tested 27,334 individuals with a seven-day positivity rate of 3.5% for unique individuals, the department reported Monday.
Last week, Monroe County’s seven-day positivity rates floated between 2.1% and 2.2%. People ages 20-29 make up 38.2% of Monroe County’s positive cases.
Some 36 Monroe County residents have died since the outbreak began.
Lane Wolf contributed to this report.
This story has been updated.
For the latest news and resources about COVID-19, bookmark our Coronavirus In Indiana page here.
