MWSU Preventing Outbreak (8-18-20)

MWSU Preventing Outbreak (8-18-20)

Covid-19.

As students head back to school this week... universities and colleges across the u-s are seeing clusters of covid-19 outbreaks -- forcing them to go online.

One local university says they're keeping an eye on what's happening at other campuses... and they've got a plan.

Kq2's kilee thomas has the story.

Students at missouri western are back on campus after returning from summer break... but the challenge for university leaders is making sure they stay on campus...without a coronavirus outbreak"we want them to still maintain their education, but still stay safe too."

Several colleges and universities across the country have struggled to keep covid 19 off campus...some already moving classes online ...entering their first week of online and in-person classesmissouri western is keeping an eye on what's happening on college campuses throughout the u.s. "thinking about what other institutions are doing?

Yes.

We're participating in many group phone calls so we know what's happening on the national level, the state level, the missouri level of high education offers conferences weekly so we have a finger on that pulse.

Missouri western's covid response team coordinator says prevention is key in keeping students in class this semester "if we were to have a large outbreak, we would be prepared.

We've got people that attended training for contact tracing, so that if we needed to support the health department we could do that and we will be ready."

The university has already seen some positive cases."yes, we have.

A lot of them are off campus, so they've never set foot on campus.

Since this is only our first day back, we're doing very well."

The covid response team doesn't have a certain number of cases that would force the school to fully go online...but the team said they are prepared in case of an outbreak "we've set aside rooms in our dorms for quarantine if we need to.

If those things were an issue or we didn't have the resources or if faculty weren't able to teach, we have plans in place to take care of those things."

Faculty says while they're mindful of how covid-19 is shutting down other colleges they're focusing on their case numbers "our rates here in st.

Joe or even in the greater kansas city area, are not the same as those in california, new york or texas.

We really have to pay attention to what's happening here on campus."reporting in st.

Joseph, kilee thomas, kq2 news students and staff can report their positive case results online-- at missouri western's online reporting system.

Follow this story on kq2.com for the link.