Informative note
Information about the Covid-19 outbreak detected at the UAB's Vila Universitària and the results of the testing conducted among its residents.
03/03/2021
Last week, the Catalan Ministry for Health announced a Covid-19 outbreak in the Vila Universitària residence halls of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. All residents and close contacts of those first Covid-19 infections were located, with a final result of 31 positive cases. On 25 and 26 February, health officials organised a mass testing of all residents of the Vila Universitària with the aim of detecting any asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 and cutting off any existing transmission chains. The initiative was coordinated by the Catalan Healthcare and Epidemiological Surveillance Services, and administered by the Primary Healthcare Services of the Northern Metropolis, the ICS and in collaboration with the Vila Universitària.
Of the 1,400 possible residents (not all were there at the time of outbreak), 998 people were tested with a PCR, with a result of 13 positives, a total of 1.3% of all thoses tested. The total sum of Covid-19 positive cases in this outbreak is therefore 44. All of those affected suffered from mild symptoms or had no symptoms at all. The Vila Universitària put into action the protocol designed to detect positive cases and isolated both those infected and those who had been in close contact with a positive Covid-19 person.
The UAB has opened an informative file with the aim of discovering whether the security norms were not respected, by the residence halls or the university itself. If that is the case, the necessary sanctions foreseen in these cases will be applied.
The UAB wishes to thank the Healthcare and Epidemiological Surveillance Services and all Vila Universitària staff members their dedication and professionality, and the Vila Universitària residents their collaboration and sense of responsibiltiy in making the PCR testing a complete success.
As Rector Javier Lafuente mentioned in his letter to the university community on 25 February, the UAB is “a safe place and will continue to be so. The governing team, in collaboration with the administrations of each centre, are working together to guarantee the safety of all” and what is now necessary is to "maintain strict norms to guarantee our safety and the safety of us all".
More information: Coronavirus website
This information is related to the following SDG
Good health and well-being