UMass to bring more students back, as 19 new deaths reported in state

Boston (AP) — The University of Massachusetts-Amherst plans to bring more students back to campus for the spring semester in conjunction with a more robust coronavirus testing program, school officials said Friday.

First- year and transfer students will be given the option to live on campus, as will students who depend on the university for housing and dining, including international students, those taking mandatory in-person courses, and varsity athletes, the state’s flagship university said in a statement.

They represent about 60% of the typical on-campus population, Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy said in the statement.

Students who don’t want to live on campus will be able to continue with remote learning, he said.

Among other measures meant to control the spread of the virus, the school will introduce twice-weekly asymptomatic virus testing in the spring.

UMass has conducted more than 100,000 tests since August for a positivity rate of 0.15%, schools officials said.

The university has about 22,000 undergraduates and on-campus capacity for about 13,000. There are only about 1,100 students who need essential in-person classes living on campus this fall.

“While I am pleased that a larger percentage of our students will be afforded the opportunity to return to campus and take part in the immersive residential experience, my heart goes out to students to whom we are not able to extend this invitation,” Subbaswamy said. “Put simply, given the nature of the pandemic, the campus cannot operate at full capacity and adequately provide the virus testing, contact tracing, social distancing, and quarantine and isolation measures necessary while the pandemic continues.”

Virus by the numbers

Massachusetts on Friday reported 19 newly confirmed coronavirus deaths and nearly 970 newly confirmed cases, pushing the state’s confirmed COVID-19 death toll to nearly 9,610 and its confirmed caseload to nearly 144,900.