Two sorority houses in the Greek Village were put under quarantine on Monday after residents tested positive for the coronavirus. The students will be in quarantine for up to 14 days.
The two sorority houses under quarantine are Chi Omega and Tri Delta, according to members in both sororities.
More than 5% of Tri Delta members have tested positive and all in-person events will be suspended until cases decrease, according to a GroupMe message. The GroupMe is used for official communication to the Tri Delta pledge class.
An anonymous member of Chi Omega said it will continue to provide meals, but everything is to-go and outside.
These outbreaks come shortly after Bid Day on Aug. 23, when various sororities held in-person celebrations after giving virtual bids.
"They Zoomed us before Bid Day, and they said we can't come to the house unless you're a new member 'cause all the new members had to get tested, I think," the sorority member said. "They were like, you can go take pictures with your friends."
President Bob Caslen said despite the outbreaks, he is still "confident" in USC's ability to mitigate the virus' spread.
“We moved quickly to identify positive students and then to quarantine the impacted houses and its residents. Our modeling shows that we will see an increase of cases as our students return," Caslen said in an email. "I remain confident in our ability to mitigate cases through testing, compliant student behaviors and the wearing of face coverings. Our campus community can be assured that we will act quickly and decisively if student behaviors are not compliant. The health, safety and wellbeing of our students is our number one priority, and we will take all appropriate measures to protect and care for the members of our campus community.”
The students themselves were either asymptomatic or showed minor symptoms of the coronavirus before testing and will not need to be hospitalized.
Sources chose to remain anonymous because members from both sororities were asked by their presidents to not speak to the press.
Updated Aug. 25 at 11:06 p.m.
Collin Speicher contributed to the reporting of this article.