Georgia Tech quarantines fraternity, reports 51 new COVID-19 cases

A fraternity at the Georgia Institute of Technology was placed under quarantine over the weekend after at least 17 more of its members contracted COVID-19, the school said in a statement.

Officials at Georgia Tech announced the new cases at the fraternity on Saturday, saying the previously reported cluster of at least eight members had risen by 17.

“All residents of the house have been tested and Georgia Tech is turning the house into an isolation location,” the school said in a statement. “Residents who have not tested positive will relocate elsewhere to quarantine until they can return safely to normal activities.”

On Sunday, the Atlanta-based public university reported 51 new cases of the virus, bringing its total number of cases since March to 302. The school did not specify if any of the additional 51 cases were linked to the fraternity cluster.

Georgia Tech did not name which fraternity was under quarantine, but in a statement on Instagram, Sigma Phi Epsilon’s Georgia Tech chapter confirmed their house was locked down.

“Fulton County has been in touch with several of our members and is working on the contact tracing process,” the fraternity wrote in its statement.

Georgia Tech's reopening plan drew concern earlier this summer when the school announced students would be returning to campus in August.

More than 800 of the school's 1,100 faculty members signed a letter to the Georgia Board of Regents in July outlining their concerns, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting. The faculty said the school wasn't following "science-based evidence" in its return plan.

The fraternity cluster comes as the Georgia Department of Health reported more than 250,000 cases and 5,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the state since the pandemic began.