RICHMOND, Va. -- A little more than a week after students returned to VCU's downtown Richmond campus for the fall semester, the university announced plans to open up more isolation beds as active COVID-19 cases rise with 79 active student cases and 12 active employee cases reported as of Thursday morning.
The university announced it would add more COVID isolation beds to the former Honors College Residence Hall. Earlier this year, the school closed down due to COVID, and beds in the residence hall were set aside for potential patient overflow from VCU Medical Center.
School officials said those beds have not been used during the pandemic.
The additional space, alongside the reserved beds at Gladding Residence Center III, would give VCU 160 isolation beds for infected on-campus students who need to isolate.
A cluster of positive cases was found in VCU's Athletics department and would need additional space to isolate those students, according to the university. Impacted classes, labs and office spaces are being relocated.
This is a developing story.