Notre Dame Suspends In-Person Classes After Coronavirus Spike

Students will take online classes from their residence halls or off-campus housing for two weeks, but will not be quarantined, clarified spokesperson Paul Browne to the WSJ.

If cases continue to climb, students could be ordered to leave campus and return home, Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins is reportedly announcing to the university Tuesday afternoon.

The university also plans to ramp up its testing of students who aren’t showing symptoms to better measure the virus’s prevalence on campus. 

Notre Dame reported an alarming spike of 80 new cases on Tuesday, tripling the total infection number and boosting the school’s positivity rate to nearly 16% (the World Health Organization suggests a 5% rate for state reopening).

A number of cases were linked to two off-campus parties, with the majority of cases among senior undergraduates, predominantly males, according to Browne.