On college campuses, Omicron is fueling more stress for students as it causes another round of closures

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus is compounding pressure on college students and administrators, prompting some to announce at least a temporary return to remote learning in January at the same time that many students are feeling more stressed out and exhausted than ever.

This semester, many students had finally gotten into the groove of in-person learning and teaching and finally felt connected to their peers, but in the past two weeks, the variant has begun to tear across campuses.

Harvard graduate student Tanush Jagdish, an evolutionary biologist whose lab also helped Harvard set up its COVID testing lab, said he hopes the university switches back to in-person classes after the first few weeks of the semester.

“It will be really hard to manage classes and research and mental health and just keep going,” he said.

Omicron, which scientists and doctors say is much more transmissible than prior variants, is now the dominant strain in the United States. Scientists are still working to determine how severe it is, but they say vaccines and boosters offer the best protection.

Last week, colleges in the Boston region began to see spikes in case numbers in large part due to Omicron. Northeastern University, for example, had 368 new cases in the past seven days, compared to 154 cases in the seven prior.

“It’s been insane in the past week and a half, honestly, so many people have gotten [COVID],” said Jackson Hurley, a senior.