The College has learned that an off-campus student who lives in Ulster County has tested positive for COVID-19.
The student has not been on campus at all during the fall 2020 semester, and has been in isolation since developing symptoms last week. They were tested at an off-campus medical facility and reported the positive results to the College’s Student Health Service on Sept. 3.
This student is not being counted among “active cases” on the College’s COVID-19 dashboard, because they have not been on campus during the last 14 days and therefore should not pose an on-campus health risk.
We had previously announced that we would not report positive cases that do not directly impact our on-campus environment. However, given the public interest in information that may affect our surrounding community, we are revising that decision and will begin reporting any positive cases among students and employees who reside in Ulster County, even when they have not been on campus during the last 14 days.
The Student Health Service will monitor this student’s health, and they will remain in isolation until cleared by Student Health Service (generally 14 days post-exposure or 10 days from onset of symptoms, per CDC guidelines).
According to the College’s Testing and Quarantine procedure for fall 2020, contact tracers have already been deployed to interview the student who tested positive about where they have been and with whom they have been in contact. Contact tracers will notify other individuals as appropriate, and will also notify Facilities Management if the students have been in common spaces on campus within the last seven days.
All of the faculty teaching courses in which students testing positive for COVID-19 are enrolled will be notified, whether those courses are in-person, remote or hybrid.
Students and instructors who share in-person courses (if any) with those who test positive will be notified but will not be required to quarantine unless contact tracers confirm that they have been in close contact (10 minutes or more within six feet) without wearing a mask.
This is in accordance with current SUNY, state and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance that quarantine is necessary only in cases when a person has been without a mask and has spent more than 10 minutes within six feet of an infected person.
The Student Health Service has notified state and local health departments, per state requirements.
A total of eight students have tested positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the fall 2020 semester; only seven of these students had been on campus during the 14 days prior to receiving their positive test result. Six are currently classified as active cases (defined as confirmed positive tests among individuals who have been on campus and may have exposed others). One student has recovered and is no longer counted among active cases. Fourteen students are in quarantine on campus, and three more are in isolation on campus.
The College has not received reports of any employees testing positive since the semester began.
As previously announced, the College will continue reporting new positive cases of COVID-19 to community members through the Daily Digest e-newsletter. Each issue of the Digest will include a “Coronavirus Update” announcing new, confirmed positive cases among students or employees, if any.
Our community can also stay up-to-date on this information via our COVID-19 dashboard, which includes tallies of current active cases, total cases last week, total recoveries, data on on-campus student testing and positivity rates for those on-campus tests, and information about students quarantining and isolating on campus. This dashboard does not include counts of positive cases among students taking online courses from home, or employees who are telecommuting and not coming to campus, as any such cases should not pose an on-campus health risk.
Use this link for more details about our coronavirus communication protocol for fall 2020.
We remind members of our community that the CDC has advised that there is “No Identifiable Risk” to an individual who walks by 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.
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.
