Cornell goes to red alert, cancels graduation ceremony after student omicron outbreak
Fox News
Cornell University recently announced a number of safety measures after moving to red alert status in response to a significant number of student samples that tested positive for the omicron variant, according to a recent university statement.
"I want to make clear that our evidence of Omicron is preliminary. PCR testing has identified its hallmark (the so-called S-gene dropout) in a substantial number of virus samples. While we must await confirmatory sequencing information to be sure that the source is Omicron, we are proceeding as if it is," President Martha E. Pollack said.
The says it based its decision on preliminary data that suggests the virus is more transmissible than other variants, so ".. when you have high transmissibility, you’re going to have very high numbers of cases, and so even with lower rates of serious illness, outbreaks must be taken seriously."