With more students testing positive for COVID-19, Lebanon Valley College leaders have announced that they will end in-person classes as of Saturday and shift totally to on-line learning.
The shut-down will be effective at 4 p.m. that day.
“We have been fortunate to have continued in-person learning so far this semester, but the worsening county, state and campus data trends are concerning,” college officials said. "There has been an increase in the number of tests administered to campus community members and some recent positive results.
“While there is no crystal ball to project the future, there is significant evidence that we should manage the situation before an outbreak occurs on campus,” they said.
Classes will go to fully on-line mode on Nov. 9. Resident students, other than those given special exemptions, must be out of campus residence halls by 4 p.m. Saturday.
According to the college, 70 students on campus have been tested for COVID-19 since classes began in August. One student tested positive for the virus and four were awaiting test results as of Sunday. There were three positives among students tested off campus with the results of one test pending.
Forty-nine students were either self-quarantining or self-isolating on campus, the school reported, while another 59 were doing so off-campus.
State health officials say more than 200,000 people across Pennsylvania have tested positive for COVID-19 and nearly 8,800 deaths have been attributed to the virus.