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Coronavirus Outbreak Reported At USC's Fraternity Row After 44 People Test Positive

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — A coronavirus outbreak has been reported along USC's fraternity row after 44 people tested positive for the virus, school officials confirmed Thursday.

USC Student Health's chief health officer Dr. Sarah Van Orman told the Los Angeles Times the people who tested positive living in multiple fraternity houses that line 28th Street.

"A significant number of the cases were associated with four fraternity houses," Van Orman said.

Van Orman said the off-campus houses are not controlled by the university and it was unclear if the infections involved fraternity members, who often lease rooms out during the summer.

RELATED: USC Student Health To Expand Daily Coronavirus Testing With Minimum 500 Daily Tests

School officials said that although the outbreak affected fraternity houses, it was not clear if those infected were fraternity members or people who leased out rooms over summer.

Officials, however, do believe the outbreak is over as no new cases have been reported in the last week.

To date, about 150 Trojan students and employees have tested positive for COVID-19.

The school has moved the vast majority of classes online, canceled events, limited on-campus housing, added mask requirements as well as social- distancing and symptom-checking measures and regularly report infection data since the pandemic began.

"Unless all of us understand that right now our only tools are physical distancing and wearing masks, we're going to continue to have devastation, not only in terms of the economy, our learning, our academics, our jobs, but people dying," Van Orman said. "Each of us have to decide what we stand for. Frats need to do that as well."

(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)

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