Dartmouth College announced this week that it is delaying its January campus reopening due to a recent spike in positive coronavirus tests on campus. Dartmouth is one of many colleges that has invited students back to campus for the spring semester.

Dartmouth College announced this week in a press release that students will begin the spring semester from their homes. The decision, which was made as part of the college’s effort to mitigate the spread of the virus on campus, was announced on Monday by provost Joseph Helbe.

“Unfortunately, we have all observed increasing COVID-19 case counts, hospitalizations, and deaths across the country over the past several weeks, and national and state modeling predict a continued increase in virus transmission rates into the new year–including locally–exacerbated by a surge resulting from the upcoming holiday season,” Helble wrote. “Therefore, we are changing the undergraduate winter term return-to-campus arrival dates.”

“Our initial plans for winter term had undergraduates returning to campus on Jan. 5-6 with classes beginning on Jan. 7. However, we must now delay the return of undergraduates to campus until the weekend of Jan. 16-17. Students currently scheduled to move in on Jan. 5 will shift to Jan. 16, and students currently scheduled to move in on Jan. 6 will shift to Jan. 17,” Helble said.

Students will be required to take a “pre-arrival” coronavirus test at home prior to their return to campus. Upon their return, students will be tested twice each week. According to Helble’s press release, students living off-campus will also be required to abide by the college’s spring coronavirus protocol.

However, a few universities and colleges will keep their campuses closed for the upcoming spring semester. Breitbart News reported in September that California State University will keep all 23 of its campuses closed in the spring. Students will continue to take online courses until a vaccine is widely available to the public.

Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more updates on this story.