Due to the continuing surge in COVID-19 cases at UMass revealed at the campus’s symptomatic and asymptomatic testing sites, the operational posture of the campus has been raised to “high risk,” Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy announced in a letter to the UMass community on Sunday.
As part of a number of public health measures implemented by campus, all athletic activities – including games and practices – will pause for UMass sports programs.
This new designation will go into effect at 2 p.m., Sunday, February 7 and be in place for a minimum of 14 days. It will only be lifted when public health conditions improve substantially.
The decision to raise the risk level, just two days after it was raised to “elevated risk,” was made in consultation with the Commonwealth’s Department of Public Health. It comes after a further increase in the prevalence of positive cases reported among students since Thursday, Feb. 4.
From Feb. 2-4, the campus recorded 298 positive tests, for a total of over 398 active cases as of Friday, Feb. 5.
