Cuomo says he’ll shut down college campuses if partying continues

Photo via Governor’s Office/Flickr

By David Brand

Gov. Andrew Cuomo vowed to shut down college campuses Friday if schools see a surge in new COVID-19 cases following reports of students partying in large groups. 

Covid clusters have emerged at campuses in other states, prompting some schools to cancel in-person classes and force students to leave the dorms.

 "We've seen troubling reports of students congregating on college campuses, so we are setting a threshold that says if colleges have 100 cases or if the number of cases equal 5 percent of their population or more, they must go to remote learning for two weeks, at which time we will reassess the situation," Cuomo said. "We should anticipate clusters and that's what we're seeing. Be prepared for it, get ahead of it."

So far, Queens has been spared a COVID-19 resurgence. 

St. John’s University reopened its campus in early August and made most out-of-state students quarantine for at least 14 days upon their return. SJU had at least one confirmed case of COVID-19 as of Friday, according to an on-campus case tracking tool published by The New York Times.