College students should stay put in the event of a coronavirus outbreak on campus rather than be sent home, one epidemiologist says.
Ravina Kullar, a spokesperson for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, told the Boston Herald that sending students home in such a scenario could lead to further spread and make contact tracing more difficult.
Kullar added universities should be prepared to isolate and treat students on campus if an outbreak occurs.
“Colleges need to take on the burden of having these students kept at their campus and taking care of them,” Kullar told the paper.
Boston University, one of the only colleges making their testing data public, has seen 39 positive cases and nearly 30,000 negative test results since they began testing at the end of July. The online data base shows 20 students are currently in isolation.
Northeastern University has established COVID-19 Wellness Housing for students who test positive to recover away from others.
