USC quarantines two Greek Village sorority houses because of coronavirus cases

The University of South Carolina has quarantined two sorority houses in its Greek Village because of coronavirus, the school said Tuesday.

The students “were either asymptomatic or experiencing very minor COVID-19 symptoms prior to their tests,” USC spokesman Jeff Stensland said in a statement. None of the positive students have been hospitalized.

USC President Robert Caslen said in a statement that the school acted quickly to quarantine the sororities and is confident in USC’s ability to contain the spread of COVID 19.

“I remain confident in our ability to mitigate cases through testing, compliant student behaviors and the wearing of face coverings,” Caslen said. “Our campus community can be assured that we will act quickly and decisively if student behaviors are not compliant. The health, safety and well-being of our students is our number one priority, and we will take all appropriate measures to protect and care for the members of our campus community.”

One of the quarantined sororities, Delta Delta Delta, often abbreviated tri-delt, will be forced to quarantine for 14 days starting Monday because of “multiple confirmed positive COVID 19 cases among residents,” according to a letter sent to the sorority and signed by Debbie Beck, USC’s top official overseeing coronavirus response.

It is unclear which other sorority has been quarantined.

USC has an online dashboard where the public can view the number of active cases, quarantine capacity, percent positive tests and more. However, the case count is recent as of Aug. 20, which is before classes began.

As of Aug. 20, there were 44 active student coronavirus cases and two employee COVID cases, according to the dashboard.

The students in the sorority house are being required to take virtual classes until the quarantine expires, according to the letter.

This story was originally published August 25, 2020 at 11:19 AM.