April 14 report on confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the campus community

April 13, 2020 Andrew Bruso

One faculty member and one student have notified the College that they have tested positive for COVID-19.

The faculty member is a male who teaches in the Department of Psychology. He reported that the onset of symptoms took place on March 16. He was last on campus on March 17. He taught courses and attended events on campus during the week of March 9-13. He was tested for COVID-19 on March 30 and notified the College of a positive result this weekend.

The student is a male, non-resident graduate student who primarily takes courses online. He was last on campus in February. He reported the onset of symptoms took place on March 30. He was tested on April 3 and received a positive result on April 10. He is currently at home in Manhattan.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance, additional notification to students, faculty or staff who may have come into contact with these individuals while on campus is not needed, as it has been more than 14 days since either of them was on campus.

Because it has been more than seven days since either was on campus, we also do not need to deploy any focused cleaning of buildings they occupied, per current CDC guidance.

As of this writing, we can confirm that eight employees and 16 students have tested positive for COVID-19. All have been quarantined at home or in the hospital. Some are already feeling better.

The College is now sharing information about students, faculty and staff who test positive for COVID-19 in the morning Daily Digest newsletter. These updates will be published whether or not there are new confirmed cases to report, and will continue Monday-Friday until further notice.

Members of the campus community may hear unconfirmed reports of individuals who are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 but have not tested positive. The College will continue to report only confirmed, positive-test cases to the campus community.

We remind members of our community that the CDC has advised that there is “No Identifiable Risk” to an individual who walks or briefly shares a room with a COVID-19-positive individual. That guidance can be found in Table 1 of the CDC’s interim guidance for risk assessment related to perceived levels of exposure.

We continue to recommend that members of our community who are experiencing flu-like symptoms practice good public health protocols by resting, drinking lots of fluids, reducing contact with others, restricting their movement, and contacting the Student Health Center or their primary care physician.

Campus leadership is continuing to monitor developments related to COVID-19 with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and our local and state health departments, as well as SUNY System Administration and the Governor’s Office.

Please continue to monitor campus e-mail for updates. Campus community members can view updates at the Coronavirus Information and Coronavirus FAQs webpages, which are being updated regularly as this situation evolves.