Still reveling in upset win, Wolfpack fans not worried about possible COVID outbreak

"People are yelling and screaming and celebrating, and those, Unfortunately, are activities that expel COVID particles," said Dr. Erica Pettigrew, a primary care physician with UNC Health. "I can understand the students' excitement. I would have felt much more comfortable if people were wearing masks when they stormed the field."

N.C. State students said they aren't concerned about becoming infected, noting that rushing the field was no less safe than tailgating or going to a fraternity party or a bar.

"I feel like people were just caught up in the moment and just excited about winning the game," Elijah Gordon said. "It's not that different than what's already happening in college, except this is televised and stuff and everybody gets to see it."

"It's been over a year – almost two years. We're kind of over it," Angelica Melsopp said of the pandemic.

"I feel like, from COVID, we've all missed out on so much in college – the prime college experience. Any single bit of that that we can get, I think everyone should take advantage of it," Caroline Coyte said. "Time to get to some normalcy, I think."

Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren also said he doesn't think students storming the football field was a super-spreader risk. The N.C. State players and staff are fully vaccinated, he said, and they interacted only briefly with fans.

"I think you should focus more on that N.C. State had a good game and everybody had a good time. Nobody got hurt, and let's just call it a great night instead of trying to make it into something it wasn't," Doeren said at his weekly news conference. "We're in the best protected place we can be – we're outside, [and] we're not having close contact."

Seventy-seven percent of N.C. State undergraduate students and 86 percent of graduate students are vaccinated against coronavirus, according to university figures. Routine testing for the virus is available to everyone, officials said, and there are no plans to step it up after Saturday's events.

Still, Pettigrew said people need to think twice about being in a large crowd during the pandemic.

"All of these activities come with risk, and we need to figure out what level of risk people are taking," she said. "If you do decide to go to a mass gathering, make sure that you're fully vaccinated and wear a mask."