News & Politics

8 Georgetown University Students Tested Positive for Covid-19

The university says it moved the students into "designated isolation areas on campus."

Georgetown University.
Coronavirus 2020

About Coronavirus 2020

Washingtonian is keeping you up to date on the coronavirus around DC.

Georgetown University has identified eight students who’ve tested positive for Covid-19 and moved them into “designated isolation areas on campus.” The news was first reported by the Hoya on Twitter.

Seven of the eight students lived in the same apartment complex, named Village A. The university says it identified the students through its mandatory twice a week testing program and will follow CDC guidelines to clean “any impacted areas on campus.” Contact tracing suggests the infections are “due to students’ social networks and activities” and that “residential proximity may play a role,” though Village A lacks the “communal spaces and common entrances” often found in student housing.

Georgetown is coordinating with DC’s Department of Health, the university says in a statement, and it has been in touch with the students’ close contacts.

The eight aren’t Georgetown’s only cases this fall—the university said on Monday it’s seen 13 cases on or near campus in the past week. Colleges and universities have become Covid hotspots across the nation as students return to campus. Georgetown began this semester virtually but announced it would house students “who have been invited to return to campus because of academic requirements and members of the incoming first-year class who are F1 visa holders.”

Senior editor

Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.