Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator, is advising college students who contract the coronavirus to self-isolate in their dorms or residences and not return home.
"Please isolate at your college," Birx said in a message for infected students in a press conference on Sunday, according to CNN. "Do not return home if you’re positive and spread the virus to your family, your aunts, your uncles, your grandparents."
Several colleges and universities across the country have reported coronavirus outbreaks, with about 8,700 cases reported on campuses in 36 different states.
"We can prevent the spread from any university into the community and into the homes from where the students came if the students will isolate and ensure they don’t spread the virus," Birx said.
Ravina Kullar, epidemiologist and spokesperson for Infectious Diseases Society of America, told Bloomberg that sending students home if they’re sick or exposed to someone sick will "inevitably" cause an outbreak.
"Colleges need to take on the burden of having these students kept at their campus and taking care of them," she said.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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