Another person at Sussex University has now been confirmed as having coronavirus and is self-isolating off campus.
Staff at the university were emailed this morning to tell them no special measures are considered necessary, but staff are encouraged to familiarise themselves with information on the university’s online coronavirus pages.
The first confirmed case at the university, announced last week, was of someone who had picked up the virus abroad, and not visited Brighton since returning to the UK.
Today’s email doesn’t say whether this latest case had been on campus.
The email, sent just after 1pm, said: “We are committed to a proactive and transparent approach to communicating with you about the evolving covid-19 coronavirus situation, so we are providing you with an update.
“Public Health England have notified us that a second individual associated with the university has tested positive for covid-19. The person is currently self-isolating off campus and, as you would expect, the university is in close contact with PHE about this case.
“PHE have reconfirmed with us that we do not need to put in place any special measures or to change the running of the institution, so the campus continues to be open as usual.
“Our highest priority is the health and wellbeing of our students and staff. That is why we have been stringently planning for a variety of scenarios, which you will have seen from our previous emails and communications.
“We have also ensured that there is a very good flow of information between the university and health authorities to support this.
“For now, all staff are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the information on our coronavirus web pages, which includes links to NHS advice on health and hygiene and government guidance on travel.
“We will continue to keep you informed so that we can all take proactive steps to prepare and respond.”
The government’s Cobra committee met today to decide whether to move from trying to contain the virus to instead delaying its spread, which could involve more widespread measures to restrict large groups of people meeting.
Its coronavirus plan, published last week, had measures ranging from increased home working to the cancellation of mass-attendance events and restricting police and fire services in a worst case scenario.
It decided the UK should remain in the containment stage for now, but said it expects the virus to spread significantly.
Yesterday, the UK saw the biggest jump in cases to date, with another 69 diagnoses bringing the total to 244 as of 9am on Sunday morning.
Three people have now died, all of whom had underlying conditions.
The number for Brighton and Hove stayed the same at seven cases, having increased by one on Saturday. Friday was the first time a local authority level breakdown had been released.
The first five cases in Brighton and Hove were reported in early February, and all recovered with no onward spread of the virus within the city.
The sixth case is believed to be the person associated with Sussex University announced last week.
Updated figures for today should be released mid-afternoon, following the UK-wide figures which are published each day at 2pm.
Their responsibility INCLUDES the city residents! 20% of our residents are students
Actually, student numbers aren’t nearly that high and likely never have been. I think the perception of students has changed a lot though.
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/localarea?compare=E06000043#section_8_3
https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-2
HESA is the Higher Education Statistics Authority that all universities report into year on year. Brighton and Sussex combined apparently have 34,820 students and the city has a population of 290,395. More like 11% for the academic year 2018-19.
Obviously, there are other small institutions but this isn’t going to take the numbers up even nearly to 20%.
what about all the foreign students that visit Brighton. a lot of them Italian and visiting out of season because its so expensive to come here in the summer – ive seen loads of them down the seafront for months
Bad reporting, there is not a second case AT the University. From the link: ‘There are no reported cases of Covid-19 on the University of Sussex campus.’
Someone ‘associated’ with the University has tested positive which is a vary different thing.
Irresponsible.
too many students and not enough affordable housing and council houses. seem to only benefit people studying and with good jobs not unemployed and people on benefits plus people with lots of kids on benefits – aint fair m8