Students ‘scared and confused’ after halls lockdown

HUNDREDS of students in Manchester have been told to self-isolate after 127 of them tested positive for coronavirus.

About 1,700 students at the Birley campus and Cambridge Halls at Manchester Metropolitan University have been told to stay in their rooms for 14 days, even if they have no symptoms.

The rate of Covid-19 spread in Manchester was 185.6 per 100,000 people in the week up to September 22, when 1,026 positive tests were recorded, figures show.

This was almost twice the rate of the previous week when the infection rate was 93.2 per 100,000, with 515 cases.

The news comes after all students in Scotland were told to avoid pubs as part of efforts to prevent outbreaks in university campuses from spreading into the wider population.

Students at Manchester Met described being scared and confused as their accommodation was locked down without warning.

Students at the Birley campus described confusion as security staff arrived to enforce the lockdown on Friday, before many of them had received any official communication from the university to tell them what was happening.

Dominic Waddell, a first-year filmmaking student, told PA: “A few people got an email to announce they were locking down my accommodation, but not everyone got that so there was a big freak-out with everyone.

“There was a security guard that then just arrived at the gate of our accommodation and he wasn’t letting anybody leave, not really explaining what was going on.”

Megan Tingey, a 19-year-old criminology student, said police also turned up outside her Birley Vine accommodation.

“It was quite scary and confusing,” she told PA. “A police van turned up and there were police outside the gate, quite a lot of them just walking around looking at everyone, especially because we didn’t know what was going on.

“No one’s really told us much and then the police turn up as well with security outside – it’s a really, really difficult situation.”

Ms Tingey said that by yesterday afternoon she still had not received an email from the university, though most of her friends had.

For those in her flat, she said, it was particularly tough as they were only just emerging from isolation having themselves tested positive for the virus around 10 days ago.”

PA has contacted the university for comment.