04 October,2020 05:46 AM IST | London | Agencies
People walk past a sign advising social distancing in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, north-east England as many students self-isolate in a bid to reduce the spread of the virus on the campus. Pic/AFP
At least 770 students at the UK's Northumbria University have tested positive for COVID-19, leading to hundreds of other pupils to self-isolate.
In a statement on Friday, a university spokesman said that of these, 78 were symptomatic and all the infected students and their close contacts were currently self-isolating for 14 days in line with the government guidelines.
A spokesperson for Northumbria University said: "The increase in numbers comes in the week after students returned to university and reflects the good access to and availability of testing, as well as rigorous and robust reporting systems."
"We are making it clear to students that if they break the rules they will be subject to fines from police and disciplinary action by the universities which may include fines, final warnings or expulsion," added the spokesman.
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"Both Northumbria and Newcastle universities have COVID-19 response teams on call that are working closely with NHS Test and Trace, Public Health England North East and the City to identify and get in touch with anyone who has been in close contact with those affected," he said.
There have been more than 200 cases at the University of Sheffield and 177 at University of Liverpool. Following the development at Northumbria, the University and College Union (UCU), which represents lecturers, said that it had warned that it was "far too soon for a mass return to campus".
"We told Northumbria University they had a civic duty to put the health of staff, students and the local community first and we take no pleasure in now seeing another preventable crisis play out. We warned them last month that given the infection rate and the problems with test and trace, it was far too soon for a mass return to campus," the Union added.
The UK's 'R' rate of Coronavirus transmission has remained above 1 and is continuing to increase, according to the latest government update. 'R' represents the average number of people each COVID-19 positive person goes on to infect and when the figure is above 1, an outbreak can grow exponentially, the report stated. Data released on Friday by the government's Science and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies revealed that the rate was now estimated to be between 1.3 and 1.6.
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