The number of confirmed coronavirus cases tied to a popular Michigan college bar has climbed to 85, according to reports.
Local health officials are now advising those who visited Harper’s Restaurant and Brew Pub, near Michigan State University’s campus in Lansing, between June 12 and June 22 to self-quarantine for 14 days and get tested for COVID-19.
“Cases linked to Harper’s are currently at 85 total,” the Ingham County Health Department said on its Facebook page Saturday.
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Eighty of the cases involve individuals who visited the bar and then tested positive, 360aproko reported. Most of those infected have only shown mild symptoms. At least 10 have been asymptomatic.
College students without masks could be seen in photos on social media crowded together on a line to get into Harper’s after the bar reopened June 12 when Michigan eased coronavirus restrictions that had shuttered bars and restaurants for three months.
The business closed again June 22, shortly after two people tested positive for the coronavirus, the station reported.
The owners of the bar plan to install a new heating and cooling system, and an app to help manage the sidewalk line and control crowds, the station reported.
The Detroit Free Press reported Sunday that 30 new COVID-19 cases 100 miles away in affluent Grosse Pointe have been linked to the Harper’s outbreak.
According to the paper, an individual who went to Harper’s and became infected came in contact with a friend who held a huge house party in Grosse Pointe Woods, where dozens of friends partied without masks and social distancing.
That host was symptomatic during the party and became more ill over the weekend before being tested for COVID-19 on Monday. The next day, he shared that he was positive, according to the paper.
“I’m just so frustrated,” said the mother of a 19-year-old daughter who tested positive after attending a bonfire with friends in Grosse Pointe. Attendees of the bonfire had been exposed to the students who were at Harper’s.
“I’m so sad. We stayed home as ordered and then let our guard down — and now this,” the woman told the paper.
