Surge in positive COVID cases connected to UW Seattle Greek community

The University of Washington Greek community is experiencing an outbreak of COVID-19 cases across multiple fraternity and sorority houses, associated “live-outs,” and individual members. The UW says case counts have increased rapidly over the last several days.

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As of late Thursday morning, the UW reports that 104 positive cases have been confirmed among nine fraternity and sorority organizations. Anyone who has tested positive or has symptoms is being instructed to isolate, as are members of houses with positive cases until a test is returned negative.

There are currently fewer than 2,000 students living in 42 fraternity and sorority houses north of campus, according to the UW.

In a letter sent to members of organizations affiliated with the Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association, all members of the Greek community who are currently in Seattle were encouraged to get tested for COVID-19 through the Husky Coronavirus Testing program.

Students, staff, and faculty are eligible to enroll in the program. Those in the Greek community can indicate their membership when enrolling in order to schedule a test. For those already enrolled, they’re asked to mark that they’ve had a high-risk exposure during their next daily check-in.

“Please encourage others you live with and those you have spent time with to join you in enrolling and getting tested. Because it is the UW’s official testing program, getting tested through Husky Coronavirus Testing – instead of at another location – speeds the contact tracing process, which will help slow the outbreak. The UW will not use information from this program to discipline individuals,” the letter reads.

Chapter presidents have been provided a list of chapters with confirmed positive cases to help members know if they’ve potentially been exposed to someone with symptoms or who received a positive test in the past two weeks.

The UW mentioned the importance of following what it calls the “3 W’s:” wear a mask, wash your hands, watch your distance.

In an email from the university, it was reported that the testing efforts at move-in for residence halls found few positive cases, with 1,620 students tested and five positive cases identified. There were 1,256 fraternity and sorority members tested at move-in and only four positive cases identified.

The Husky Coronavirus Testing program has tested more than 1,000 individuals and identified 11 positive cases since launching on Sept. 24.

This is the second large-scale COVID-19 outbreak connected to UW Seattle’s Greek community, with the first occurring in July. In the first outbreak, 154 positive cases were identified.

As members of the UW community started to return to campus, the university launched Husky Coronavirus Testing, powered by the Seattle Flu Study team for students, faculty, and staff members. The UW said it is important that as many people enroll as possible, especially those who will be on campus at least once a week.

The program is voluntary, and is available to groups on the Bothell, Seattle, and Tacoma campuses.

Washington State University has also dealt with recent outbreaks among returning students, finding the risk especially high when large groups gather together or attend parties. Pullman police had started issuing tickets to the hosts, and later the guests, of these parties in the hopes of limiting any further spread of COVID-19 and protecting the community.