Oct. 19 report on confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the campus community

The College has learned that two employees have tested positive for COVID-19. Both were tested at off-campus facilities.

Health departments in the employees’ counties of residence have been notified. Health departments will handle contact tracing for these two individuals, and they will remain in isolation until cleared by the health departments in their counties of residence.

The two employees have been in touch with the Office of Human Resources, Diversity & Inclusion to confirm plans for staying off campus until cleared to come out of isolation.

These cases are classified as “active” on the College’s COVID-19 dashboard because the employees had been on-campus prior to developing symptoms and testing positive. Facilities Management personnel have already conducted deep cleaning in spaces on campus where they had been within the seven days prior to their positive tests.

Contact tracers will reach out to individuals who may have been exposed as appropriate. Contact tracers will direct those individuals to quarantine only if they confirm that they were in close contact with those who have tested positive for COVID-19 for 10 minutes or more 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.

Because both these employees were tested at off-campus facilities, their results will NOT be counted toward the “Positive Rate from On-Campus Testing” on the dashboard.

A total of 17 students and two employees have tested positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the fall 2020 semester. Three cases are currently classified as active. One student is currently in quarantine on campus.

Our community can stay up-to-date 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 protocols for fall 2020.