NYUSH Cracks Down on Student Conduct Policy in Light of Qingdao Outbreak
Following the COVID-19 outbreak in Qingdao earlier two weeks ago, Dean Pe and NYUSH's administration doubled down on the rigidity of their COVID-19 safety policy after 15% of random travel checks for the Code of Conduct came back as "problematic."
These random checks came back problematic due to students that reportedly, "failed to submit the travel exception request and/or attempted to falsify the 'travel code'." According to Dean Pe's email on October 15, the students who failed the COVID-19 Code of Conduct are now subject to the "student conduct process" for their violations.
The violations also come at a time where in the past three weeks there have been a few large scares of COVID-19 in China, including the now contained outbreak in Qingdao.
Last week, the Chinese CDC highlighted the virus may be able to survive on frozen food packaging. China's CDC never showed any connection between the workers in Qingdao and receiving the virus from handling frozen packaging. However, after an effort to track down the source of the workers' infections, the CDC found live COVID-19 on packages of frozen cod. The CDC now believes that the virus can survive longer on certain surfaces and travel longer distances than previously thought.
Per the CDC, it is important to note that possible infection from contact with frozen foods (frozen cod in particular) is extremely rare. Testing measures are being taken across the Chinese frozen-food chain to make sure infection rates stay down.
In addition to the situation in Qingdao and the report of active virus on frozen food packaging, Dean Pe shared on Monday that there were another 137 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Kashgar. The NYUSH administration has since barred travel approvals to this region.
In the same email from Dean Pe, there was no mention of any more students violating the Code of Conduct, only a reminder that students must report whether they have come in contact with someone from Kashgar or have traveled there in the past two weeks. This is the first email sent from Dean Pe "out of caution and care for the community" with zero reported problematic random checks, but most likely not the last.
This article was written by Jaden Schapiro, currently based in New York, NY. Please send an email to [email protected] or contact via instagram@jadenschapiro to get in touch.Photo Credit: cnsphoto via Reuters