Name: Second UNH cluster not tied to any one event, health official says
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Second UNH cluster not tied to any one event, health official says

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You are the owner of this article.You have permission to edit this article.A second cluster of COVID-19 cases at the University of New Hampshire in Durham has been identified at an on-campus apartment complex, where 21 of 1,000 residents have tested positive since classes began less than three weeks ago.The cases, which have occurred at the Gables, a five-building complex, cannot be traced to one event, according to school and state officials.“There’s not any one single event, I think, that we found that we believe has contributed to transmission within the apartment complex unit, but as with any on-campus housing, there’s certainly many opportunities for social mixing and social gathering, which is likely why we have a number of cases now and a number of people infected with COVID-19 at the apartment complex,” state Epidemiologist Benjamin Chan said during Gov. Chris Sununu’s briefing on Thursday.Medical Director Peter Degnan of UNH Health &amp; Wellness and Chief of Police Paul Dean told the campus community on Wednesday evening that there were still 10 active cases at the apartments.“Any students who tested positive were required to isolate immediately for at least 10 days and close contacts were notified and placed in quarantine for 14 days,” Degnan and Dean said in the notification.According to numbers released Thursday by UNH, 27 of 37 active cases are students, and 10 are faculty or staff. The 27 students are in isolation with the disease, and another 143 students are in quarantine.The first COVID-19 cluster at UNH originated at an Aug. 29 party at Theta Chi fraternity, which was attended by more than 100 unmasked people. The quarantine period for students who attended that off-campus party has ended.On Thursday, Chan was complimentary of UNH’s testing strategy, which calls for students to be tested every four days.According to the Department of Health and Human Services COVID-19 dashboard, UNH is the only school in the state with any COVID-19 clusters.Plymouth State University and Dartmouth College have three active cases each. Nashua Community College, New England College in Henniker, Colby Sawyer College in New London and Rivier University in Nashua each have one active case.The persistence of COVID-19 at UNH alarms some.Portsmouth resident Matt Komonchak, who grew up in Durham and whose mother still lives there, said he is worried about the risk of community transmission.Komonchak said he has been trying to post news articles about COVID-19 and college communities on the town of Durham’s Facebook page, but the articles are routinely removed by administrators.Komonchak has been told by Town Administrator Todd Selig that his opinions can be expressed in the comments section of posts that the town initiates, which does not sit well with him.He said last week that both UNH and Durham are misleading the public by offering a “sanitized” version of what is happening.“If there was ever a time when Durham residents need news and facts, rather than self-serving omission and propaganda, it’s now during a pandemic. Durham’s administration is a corporate-style public relations program run amok,” Komonchak said.Luke Vincent, Durham’s manager of information technology, said the town retains editorial control of its social media and does not allow anyone to post directly to the Facebook page. It re-posts items it receives if they contain information related to the town, he said.Union Leader Staff Reporter Shawne Wickham contributed to this report.© Copyright 2022 , 100 William Loeb Drive Manchester, NH&nbsp;| &nbsp;|Powered by from .Sorry, an error occurred.You are logged in&nbsp;Sign up withThank you .Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.Check your email for details.Sign in withSubmitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the e-mail address listed on your account.×Thank you.Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.Rate:Begins:Ends:Transaction ID:A receipt was sent to your email.This offer is currently unavailable.Close

You are the owner of this article.You have permission to edit this article.A second cluster of COVID-19 cases at the University of New Hampshire in Durham has been identified at an on-campus apartment complex, where 21 of 1,000 residents have tested positive since classes began less than three weeks ago.The cases, which have occurred at the Gables, a five-building complex, cannot be traced to one event, according to school and state officials.“There’s not any one single event, I think, that we found that we believe has contributed to transmission within the apartment complex unit, but as...

Second UNH cluster not tied to any one event, health official says

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