UCO pushes back in-person return

The University of Central Oklahoma has opted to push back the day that students will return to in-person classes by one week. Students will now return on Monday, Feb. 8. Initially students were scheduled to return to campus in a normal capacity on Feb. 2 after the university shifted to “Level 4 Operations” in early January.

In a press release, UCO President Patti Neuhold-Ravikumar explains that this decision was made in conjunction with UCO’s “on-call task force and in the best interest of our Broncho community’s health–based on feedback from our college deans, faculty, and students.”

5,489 cases of coronavirus are still active in Oklahoma County, according to the state health department. Though that number is lower than it was one week ago, it remains higher than when students were last attending in-person classes in November. Oklahoma saw its’ highest surge of COVID-19 cases throughout the holiday break, when the state averaged nearly 4,000 cases a day.

Oklahoma reported 1,571 new cases of coronavirus in the state today, bringing the number of total active cases to 30,404.