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No. 882 Friday 16th October 2020 varsity.co.uk
Cambridge’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1947
Police crack down on illegal student gatherings Christopher Dorrell Senior News Editor Throughout the last week, students have received warnings from both police and senior tutors about breaking the rule of six. Cambridgeshire Constabulary have issued a plea in conjunction with Cambridgeshire County Council following a number of incidents where young people were reported gathering in large groups in Parker’s Piece, Midsummer Common and Jesus Green. According to a student, who wished to remain anonymous, on 3rd October there were about 60 people on Jesus Green, very few of whom were following social distancing guidelines. As a result, patrols have increased across the city to encourage young people, including students, to follow the rule of six. Superintendent James Sutherland, area commander for the south of Cambridgeshire, said: “Our message throughout this pandemic remains the same that this is about personal responsibility. “While the majority of people are acting responsibly, there are a few
Covid-19 12 Watch
positive symptomatic cases
22
positive asymptomatic cases
3.4
k
total number of students screened
who are choosing to ignore the guidance and causing disruption for the local community.” He continued: “The rules are very clear that no more than six people can be together inside or outside and we urge everyone, for the sake of the health of their families and friends, to continue to follow the law.” Director of Public Health for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Dr Liz Robin added: “We know how much young people have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the national lockdown and that many are concerned by its effect on their education, job prospects and social life, as well as their mental health and well-being. “Unfortunately, if young people don’t follow the Covid-19 rules this will result in the virus spreading more quickly in our area – increasing the risk of a local lockdown which would make the impact of the pandemic on young people even worse.” Senior Tutors across the University were contacted to pass on the message directly to students, warning them that police patrols would Continued on page 2 ▶
▲ There will be an increased police presence throughout Cambridge (LOUIS ASHWORTH)
Students share problems of Covid-19 asymptomatic screening Wiliam Hunter Deputy News Editor Diana Stoyanova Deputy News Editor Amy Howell News Correspondent Last week (05/10), the University ran the first round of its asymptomatic testing programme. In its first week, the programme ran at a reduced capacity, with only two people from each testing pool
being tested. As of Saturday (10/10) over 11,000 students have signed up for the scheme and over 3,500 students have already been tested. Despite the University-wide coordination, individual colleges have been given the task of implementing and managing the scheme. This has led to different colleges taking varied approaches to the requirements of the programme. For example, in an email from last week, Jesus college offered pool leads,
or as they’ve been termed “household contacts”, “a one-off £50 credit [which] will be added to your College bill for this academic year”. Household contacts are expected to attend a briefing delivered by the Senior Tutor and Tutorial Department Manager and have been assigned a variety of other responsibilities to ensure the smooth running of the programme. Likewise, student experiences across colleges have been mixed, with some
reporting more issues than others. Some students have reported that they found the distribution and organisation of testing to have been managed well. For instance, a third year student at Queen’s College, who has requested to remain anonymous, told Varsity that within their “testing pool the process overall ran smoothly. There was a bit of anxiety the night before as we hadn’t heard which two members of our testing pool would be required to take a swab,
but by the time the test had to be taken this had been confirmed via email”. However, they also commented that “unfortunately, as someone for whom receiving health-related test results does cause quite a large amount of stress and anxiety, waiting for my results to be communicated all morning (I received them at 2pm the following day) did definitely disrupt my focus and therefore News page 3 ▶
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