SAN DIEGO — San Diego State University issued a stay-at-home order today for students living in on-campus residence halls, asking them to stay in their current residences except for essential needs throughout the weekend as the school battles an outbreak of the coronavirus.
The order goes into effect at 10 p.m. Saturday through 6 a.m. Tuesday.
"Students should stay in their current residences, except to take care of essential needs, including medical care, accessing meals, shopping for necessities such as food/meals and medical supplies, exercising outdoors (with facial coverings), and traveling for the purposes of work," a statement from SDSU read.
Violations of the order may result in disciplinary consequences, the college said.
On Friday, the university reported another 120 confirmed or probable COVID-19 cases among its student population Friday, raising the university's total caseload to 184 since fall semester began Aug. 24.
Additionally, San Diego County public health officials confirmed multiple clusters of COVID-19 cases within the university community among students. This includes a previously announced off-campus outbreak on Wednesday. SDSU officials say none of the cases under investigation are related to on-campus educational activities, including classes or labs.
Luke Wood, SDSU's vice president for student affairs and campus diversity, said the university was working with a security company to enforce public health code violations and had issued a total of 457 student violations through Friday afternoon. Wood said the most serious of these violations could result in suspension or expulsion from the university. Some organizations have been cited as well.
Wood said the majority of these were fraternities or sororities, but followed up that not all were, and outbreaks impact the community at large regardless of the type of group they occurred in.
All of the university's in-person classes -- which SDSU President Adela de la Torre said comprised just 7% of all courses -- were moved online Wednesday. SDSU also paused all on-campus athletics training and workouts for two weeks starting Thursday due to COVID-19.
"Only a small fraction of students have met in person," de la Torre said. SDSU has a student body of more than 35,000. Nearly 8,000 students live on campus.
She cautioned that "testing alone and testing once" would not be enough, and a robust system to enforce health orders would continue to be needed to avoid the "plague of parties" already present near campus.
SDSU has more than 130 spaces for students to safely quarantine, according to the university, and all students who have moved into campus housing would be able to move out if they so choose.
County health officials warned that Labor Day weekend could be a spreading event for COVID-19.
"Most people won't be working over the long holiday period, but COVID- 19 will not be taking the day off," said Wooten. "The more people go out and the more they interact with people outside their household, the more likely they are to contract the virus."
Students were also asked to obey the following guidelines:
- Maintain physical distancing guidelines and avoid all gatherings, including those planned for the Labor Day weekend
- Wash your hands frequently
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth
- Wear a facial covering over your mouth and nose
- Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces daily
- Monitor your health for fever, cough, shortness of breath, and other symptoms of COVID-19
The full notification can be seen here.
