College Residence In Spain’s Valencia Shut Down Due To Covid Outbreak

College residence in Spain’s Valencia shut down due to Covid outbreak following a party.
THE Department of Health in the autonomous community of Valencia was forced to put the residence hall at the Colegio Mayor Ausias March on lockdown after at least 12 students tested positive for Covid-19. New information has emerged revealing that practically all of the youngsters involved in the coronavirus outbreak attended a party at a nearby bar on Saturday, April 17, which continued on in the dorm rooms after the premises closed at 6pm. According to one of the students that tested positive, “more than 60” people attended the impromptu gathering in the centre of Valencia. “We covered almost the entire place,” he said.
According to Spanish news outlet Levante, once the pub closed, the students continued partying in the residence hall, without wearing masks or observing social distancing rules. The development comes as a huge blow to the Valencian Community, which has long remained one of the regions in Spain with the lowest cumulative incidence rates. Health Councillor Ana Barcelo said that the mandatory isolation of students for 10 days was essential given the “risk posed by dissemination among university students with the low incidence observed at this time in the city of Valencia.”
Alarmingly, several students who attended the party fled the college dorms to travel to their homes, despite the Ministry of Health requiring them to enter into preventative quarantine.
According to Ministry sources, PCR tests will begin on Thursday, April 22 on all the students residing at the college, and the number of people affected by the outbreak could rise exponentially once the results are in. One student told Levante that he learned through a WhatsApp messaging group that several of his classmates have admitted to displaying symptoms compatible with Covid, “commenting that they have a fever.”
This is the second outbreak of Covid experienced by the college dorm since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic; back in October, 78 out of the 330 people living at the residence tested positive.