Upstate university with COVID-19 uptick — ‘canary in the coal mine’ — gets coronavirus ’SWAT’ team
Calling colleges “the canary in the coal mine” for coronavirus, the state on Sunday sent a “SWAT” team of experts to an upstate university.
They’re focusing on SUNY Oneonta, where 3% of on-campus students and faculty recently tested positive.
“The colleges are the canary in the coal mine,” Cuomo said at a press conference. “I think what we’re seeing at colleges, we’re going to see at the K-12 setting when those schools start to reopen.”
The state reported 100,022 test results on Saturday, a “record high,” according to the governor. Out of those tests, 0.69% were positive. New York City had a positive rate of 0.7%.
There were 429 people hospitalized and seven people died, bringing the state’s total number of coronavirus fatalities to 25,327.
“The state is doing extraordinarily well and again, kudos to all New Yorkers because there’s no mystery as to how this happens,” Cuomo said in a statement. “It’s a social action and it’s the community of the people of the State of New York.”
The “SWAT” team at SUNY Oneonta consists of 71 contact tracers and eight case investigators, according to Cuomo’s office.