Mayor 'Gravely Concerned' By Boston College Coronavirus Cluster

CHESTNUT HILL, MA — Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller wants Boston College to increase COVID-19 testing while decreasing the number of students on campus as the coronavirus continues to spread across campus.

"I am gravely concerned about the transmission of COVID-19 at Boston College," Fuller said in a statement Saturday. "Boston College community members are integrally connected with Newton — they live, shop, dine and drink, play sports, work and recreate amongst our community. When COVID-19 spikes within the Boston College community, this impacts all of us in Newton."

Fuller, who met with Boston College and other Newton officials Saturday, wants the city to take over the college's contact tracing program for students who live off campus in the city. She also asked school officials to not open additional isolation facilities in Newton. As of Saturday, 82 Boston College undergraduate students were in isolation after testing positive or being exposed to the coronavirus. Of those, 40 were isolated on campus.

The positive test rate among undergraduate students at Boston College is nearly four percent. Of the 104 positive coronavirus tests, 67 have come in the past week. Of the college's 750 varsity athletes, 30 have tested positive, including at least 13 members of the swim team. Most of the cases among athletes stem from an off-campus gathering.

While many greater Boston colleges have avoided the coronavirus outbreaks that have plagued universities in other parts of the country, Boston College has scheduled more in-person classes and called for less frequent surveillance testing for students. Fuller said the school should increase testing to weekly or twice-weekly.

Dave Copeland writes for Patch and can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).

This article originally appeared on the Newton Patch