Well, this is an episode of Unsolved Mysteries. How can a bunch of spring breakers from the University of Tampa get the Wuhan coronavirus? It’s a mystery wrapped in a riddle. Actually, no—it's no mystery. They got it because they refused to adhere to the social distancing protocols set in place by the state and now, they’ve contracted the disease. I mean, when you go to bars, crowded places, and beaches—you up the ante. And the Wuhan coronavirus can live on some surfaces for up to three days and in the air for hours. Besides, water droplets from coughing and sneezing, contracting the disease via surfaces are another source point, which is why some places are religiously wiping down their facilities. Luckily, for the University of Tampa, the school transitioned to an online format on March 17 (via Fox8):
Five University of Tampa students are recovering after testing positive for COVID-19 during spring break, the school said.
The university said the students were traveling together and with other UT students during spring break before testing positive. The school didn’t say where they went during their break or if they lived on or off-campus.
College students in Florida test positive for coronavirus after spring break trip https://t.co/bCblpmh7jK pic.twitter.com/wQpb2IWL2y
— WKBN 27 First News (@WKBN) March 22, 2020
Five University of Tampa students tested positive for coronavirus, the school announced.
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) March 22, 2020
The students ignored social distancing guidelines and instead celebrated spring break with friends.https://t.co/7L9YNu1Dkn
5 college students in Florida went on a spring break trip just before testing positive for coronavirus, university says. https://t.co/BeQB7uvJGe
— KTLA (@KTLA) March 22, 2020
It’s annoying. It’s inconvenient but necessary. Social distancing is key to containing the spread. This coupled with increased testing, and hopefully, successful trials of the anti-malarial drugs that are supposedly a good stopgap until we have a vaccine, are the best things we can do to stop the spread and speed up the chance we can all return to our normal routines.
Until then, this will spread, as it has done all over the country (via Tampa Bay Times):
More college students across Florida have tested positive for COVID-19, a disease brought on by the coronavirus, the schools announced over the weekend.
The latest case is at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, which delivered the news in an email to students and faculty Sunday. Four days earlier, the school sent out a notice that an employee on the USF Tampa campus had tested positive for the virus, after coming into direct contact with 13 students.
Meanwhile, the University of Florida updated its website Sunday afternoon to show 10 students and one employee had tested positive at the Gainesville school. And the University of Tampa on Saturday announced five additional cases linked to spring break travel, bringing the school’s total number of student cases to six.
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