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COVID-19 isolation rooms dwindling on CU Boulder campus

Posted at 8:54 PM, Sep 17, 2020
and last updated 2020-09-18 00:41:33-04

BOULDER, Colo. — It's been two days since CU Boulder students were told to isolate for the next two weeks.

"It’s not really the college life I was expecting," said CU freshman Sam Hunter, who spoke with Denver7 Thursday after college life during the coronavirus pandemic.

One-hundred CU Boulder students and staff tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday alone, bringing the number of cases to 541, according to the latest numbers from the Boulder County Public Health Department.

A county health official told Denver7 they received a call from the university on Thursday voicing concern over the amount of isolation beds available.

The CU Boulder website states that since Sept. 9, 408 members of the CU Boulder community have tested positive for COVID-19 — that number amounts to 75% of the school's total cases.

And as the virus spreads on campus, the number of isolation beds continues to decline.

By Thursday morning, 151 on-campus residents were using isolation beds, including 16 local hotel rooms the university says they reserved for extra housing this year. A total of 267 isolation beds are available putting the occupancy at 57%.

University officials say the initial plan was for those isolation spaces to be for single occupancy. If more space is needed, they'll be placing two people per room.