Earlier in the week, the University of Nevada, Reno’s new president, former Gov. Brian Sandoval, announced that he would be closing the school’s fitness center. Sandoval defended his decision and said the gym was found to be a COVID-19 hotspot.
Sandoval said he closed the E. L. Wiegand Fitness Center after reviewing data that showed 60 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 visited the gym since the beginning of the semester, and six employees have tested positive for COVID-19.
“Closing the Wiegand [Fitness] Center was not a decision we took lightly because we know how much we value it,” Sandoval said. “It was not a punishment in any sense of the word. It was because it is indeed a hotspot on campus, and having learned that there were several students that had visited there, and whether unknowingly, likely, that they were positive, that they were there.”
UNR officials say a majority of positive cases are stemming from off-campus activities, something Sandoval said the university has little control over.
“We have no jurisdiction over anything that is going on off-campus,” Sandoval said. “That’s always something that’s very difficult with the private housing and the off-campus housing.”
Sandoval added that he won’t be allowing fans at the Wolf Pack’s season opener on Oct. 24 against Wyoming to comply with the state’s health directive that limits gatherings to 250 people. UNR officials say they will be looking at the data to determine if fans will be allowed at future games.
As a note of disclosure, the license to this station is owned by the Board of Regents to the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Lucia Starbuck is a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project.
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