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Sacred Heart University President threatens to send students home amid recent rise in COVID-19 cases

Dr. John Petillo addressed students in a video about the recent COVID-19 outbreak at the university.

FAIRFIELD, Conn. —  The President of Sacred Heart addressed his students Monday warning to follow COVID-19 precautions. 

Dr. John Petillo told students most of them are following the rules regarding COVID-19 and cohorting. However, some are not following the guidelines.    

"We are seeing too many positive COVID cases among students, particularly those living off-campus housing," said Dr. Petillo. "We cannot continue this way and remain business as usual." 

The President of the university continued by saying they have been receiving reports of gatherings on and off-campus exceeding the 12 person limit. Outside guests and students from surrounding dorms have been reported attending the gatherings. 

Students said nearly everyone on-campus is wearing masks and social distancing, but off-campus is a different story. 

“After seeing the President's message, I think there’s a lot of schools closed down and aren’t even attending school anymore and a lot of us need to actually take precaution and start wearing our masks,” sophomore Jennifer Paiva said. 

“A lot of people aren’t taking it super seriously and if we want to stay on campus then we should follow social distancing and wear our masks so we can stay here for the full semester,” sophomore Kaitlyn Brooks said. 

While some students said despite the COVID numbers, Sacred Heart is doing better than other universities. 

“We’re at a pretty good place right now in terms of our COVID numbers especially compared to other schools like providence and UCONN who have much higher numbers than us given they have much larger student bodies too but..” sophomore Tyler Cramer said. 

As of Tuesday, there are 96 COVID cases of off-campus housing and 22 cases in SHU housing.  Merton Hall's cautionary quarantine will be lifted Wednesday morning. 

SHU said so far there have been 80 students suspended with 56 suspensions currently active.

Watch Dr. Petillo's address below: 

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