After potluck dinner, 14 UMKC dental students have COVID-19, and more must quarantine
University of Missouri-Kansas City is investigating an off-campus event that may have led to at least 14 cases of COVID-19 among dental students this month, with more instructed to quarantine.
The first case was identified on the university COVID-19 dashboard on Oct. 10.
“The primary cause is a potluck dinner attended by about 20 dentistry students,” said John Martellaro, UMKC spokesman.
He said that while the event was not sponsored by the university, “once we learned of the situation, we immediately implemented our standard COVID-19 response protocol,” developed in consultation with the Kansas City Health Department.
“We worked quickly to trace contacts and place all potentially affected people in quarantine,” Martellaro said. Students who tested positive were immediately isolated.
Officials with the School of Dentistry are reviewing whether students who hosted or attended the potluck may have violated UMKC code of conduct. If rules were broken, Martellaro said, students could face some disciplinary action.
As cases continue to climb in Kansas and Missouri, the numbers this week at UMKC are down. The most recent spike in cases occurred on Oct. 13 when there were nine new cases. Before that, daily new cases had not climbed above 4 since Sept. 10, when there were 11 new cases.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri, as well as Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas, gained 403 coronavirus cases for a total of 48,060 as of Thursday.
This story was originally published October 22, 2020 at 5:29 PM.
