How College Students Can Remain Safe Amid the Spread of the Coronavirus B.1.1.7 Variant on Campuses

For students enrolled in college, a quarter of their traditional college experience has been lost due to the pandemic. That includes 20-year-old Julia Doria, a junior at the University of Texas at Austin, who has been on strict quarantine since the B.1.1.7 COVID variant arrived on campus.

"One whole year had to be so different and probably will continue to be different," Doria told Inside Edition.

UT Austin is one of several colleges across the country seeing a spike in variant cases, The New York Times reported.

The university sent an email to the student body this week, alerting them that the variant has made its way onto campus.

"I think it was nerve-wracking to know that something like that is here, obviously," Doria said.

Gerri Taylor, of the American College Health Association, recommends students get tested as frequently as twice a week.

"I recommend testing prior to arrival at campus so that you can identify if someone is infected, that they stay home and they don't go to school right at that time," Taylor said.

She also encourages that students never forget their, "masks, masks, masks."

"That is number one."

Doria believes that since the variant has come to campus, more students are eager to get the vaccine.

"I think that now the feelings about the variant have just pushed people to want to be vaccinated and kind of pushing in that direction more so than being scared of the variant," she said. 

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