Bangor University has revealed the number of students who have tested positive for Coronavirus.
The Welsh Government announced that Bangor would be forced into a ‘hyper-local lockdown’ on Saturday 10 October, due to the rapid increase of Covid-19 positive cases. The lockdown prevents anyone entering or leaving the city without a valid reason, such as travel for work, to attend schools or colleges and for health reasons.
The incident rate of Covid-19 in Bangor is around 400 cases per 100,000 people, compared with 97 per 100,000 in Gwynedd as a whole and 67 per 100,000 on Anglesey. The Welsh Government said cases in Bangor appeared to be closely associated with young people and the student population.
A Bangor University spokesperson told North Wales Live that the spread of the virus was mainly due to social activities rather than participation in teaching related activities.
The spokesperson told North Wales Live: “In the months before students returned to campus in September, the university put in place extensive measures to protect both staff and students.
“Teaching was redesigned to provide a blended approach with online learning and in person face to face where it was safe to do so.
“The campus itself underwent extensive adaptations to enable students to study in a Covid secure environment.
“In the run-up to their arrival, students were briefed on what would be expected of them when they came on to campus and they have been reminded of this regularly since arrival to try to ensure that everyone behaves responsibly.
“The majority of our students have and we would like to thank them for that. Where behaviour hasn’t been appropriate, we have used disciplinary measures to address it quickly.
“The university has developed an app which our students use to check-in to all of the activities they participate in on campus, teaching and social.
“As soon as a student books a test through the university portal or receives a positive test, we can trace all face to face activities the student has undertaken and can immediately alert other students involved.
“This provides us with a rich source of intelligence for the university and TTP (Track, Trace, Protect) colleagues, and it confirms that social activities, rather than participation in teaching activities, appears to be the key source of infection.
“We will therefore be continuing our Covid secure teaching activities; this will however be kept under review.
“As of Friday, October 16, the number of current Covid positive cases related to university students in the Bangor City area were 23 resident in halls and 43 resident in the Bangor community.
“This represents around 0.6% of our total student population and is a reduction of 47 on the number of recorded current cases the previous week.
“Our overriding priority is the safety of the community, our students and our staff.”
