18 members of Yale’s men’s ice hockey team test positive for COVID-19
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CNN) — Eighteen members of Yale University’s men’s hockey team have been instructed to isolate after testing positive for coronavirus.
Collectively, the cluster raised the school’s Covid-19 alert status from green, which notes “lower risk” to yellow, which signals “low to moderate risk of viral transmission.”
On Tuesday, the university community was notified that six members of a varsity athletic team had tested positive for the virus. Over the past two days 12 additional positive cases have been detected, the Ivy League school confirmed to CNN.
“All other members of the men’s ice hockey team who are in the New Haven area, as well as the Athletics staff who have worked directly with them, have been instructed to quarantine and to participate in the university testing program, whether or not they have been identified as close contacts of infected team members,” Stephanie Spangler, Vice Provost for Health Affairs and Academic Integrity, said in a letter to the Yale community Thursday evening.
Spangler told students “rigorous” contact tracing efforts are underway to identify other individuals who may have been in close contact with the athletes, and said all varsity athletic teams and intramural programs would stop in-person activities for a week. The school’s hockey rink would also be closed for cleaning through Monday, Oct. 19.
Why ice hockey rinks may enable transmission
The announcement came one day after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly report suggested indoor sports games
could turn into superspreader events.
In the report, Florida health department officials detailed an incident in which one player infected as many as 14 others at a single indoor ice hockey game last spring.
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Rhode Island positivity rate, hospitalizations on the rise
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Island’s coronavirus test positivity rate and the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19 are continuing to climb, according to state Department of Health data released Friday.
The 198 new positive cases were out of about 6,600 tests, a 3% positivity rate.
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Maine Wedding COVID-19 Outbreak Investigation Still Not Closed
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One of the focal points of the outbreak was the Big Moose Inn in Millinocket, and it spread to the York County Jail in Alfred, Maine officials have said. Those aspects of the investigation are now closed, said Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Nirav Shah.
The outbreak also spread to Maplecrest Rehabilitation and Living Center in Madison, Shah and other Maine officials have said. That facility, which was the site of six deaths from the virus, is continuing with testing, Shah said.
"They have also had stability," Shah said. "They still need to meet the requirements for closure."