Originally Posted by S=kBlogW

DURHAM, N.C. — The school year is off to a rocky start for at least two Triangle universities. Both have reported large COVID-19 clusters among vaccinated students before classes have even begun - and one even originated at an outdoor event.

Duke Vice President for Public Affairs Michael Schoenfeld says the cases were traced back to various indoor events in Durham. At least one was at a bar or restaurant, and others were in private homes. Duke has a near 100% vaccination rate.

Schoenfeld says about half the infected students are asymptomatic. The others have mild cold-like symptoms. The affected students will isolate for 10 days, and contract tracers will identify and test people who made contact with them.

Duke has a strict indoor mask requirement.

At UNC, the cluster involves at least six School of Pharmacy students. The vaccination rate for that school is about 94 percent.

WRAL broke the news that the outbreak was traced back to an outdoor pre-orientation party for PharmD students on August 2nd.

Neel Swamy, a third-year pharmacy student and peer mentor, was at the event. He said around 150 people were there.

"All outside, no indoor component, and students were wearing masks pretty much the entire time, other than when they were eating.

Duke, UNC see unexpected COVID-19 clusters among vaccinated students :: WRAL.com