College students head home amid warning from CDC

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has cautioned families of the potential spread of COVID-19 as college students go home for break.

Students at University at Albany are allowed to go home after testing negative for the virus. Families took advantage of the weekend on Friday to bring their students home as in-person classes wrap-up next week.

“There’s been a lot of frustration, confusion, anxiety. It’s good to have [my son] home and stay home,” said U Albany parent Fabio Alvarez.

U Albany Associate Professor of Epidemiology Eli Rosenberg said families should not let their guard down because of a negative test. 

“A test today can’t tell you today about the future. So imagine if you tested shortly before returning to your family, but got infected in the intervening days, that could also be a risk,” Rosenberg said.  “About 40 to 50 percent of households will become infected after an initial person in that household is infected,” Rosenberg said. 

The epidemiologist cautioned that if precautions aren’t followed the virus could continue to spread.

“All we need is several families seeing each other and that could have very dire consequences,” Rosenberg said.