Student has COVID; tests mandated
First confirmed case of new school year comes just days after classes resumed
A student at SUNY New Paltz has tested positive for COVID-19, leading the college to require all of its students to be tested for the illness starting next week.
The newly confirmed case, announced Thursday by the college on its website and by Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan during a Facebook Live event, is the first at SUNY New Paltz since the start of its 2020-21 school year on Monday.
The college said the affected student lives on campus, but it didn’t say where. Ryan said the student was tested voluntarily and is cooperating.
Both the student and his/her roommate — neither of whom was identified — have been quarantined, and contract tracing is being carried out, the county executive said.
SUNY New Paltz said on its
website that mandatory COVID testing will start Aug. 31 for “all students who live on campus or who are attending in-person classes.” Complete information about the required testing is posted at bit.ly/sunynpcovid.
The fall semester at
SUNY New Paltz began at the start of this week, with in-person classes held for the first time since the campus closed in March as the COVID pandemic took hold. Ryan said about 75% of the school’s classes still are being taught only online.
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Also Thursday, Ryan said Ulster County has received $170,000 in federal funding, by way of the state, to provide temporary food
services to Ulster County senior citizens who need help due to the COVID pandemic.
The money was made available under the federal coronavirus relief legislation called the CARES Act.
Ryan said the local money can be used to help senior citizens who are not able to leave their residences to obtain meals, food and supplies they need.
Ulster County seniors
who need food deliveries should call (845) 443-8888.
By the numbers
Also Thursday, Ulster County reported 11 more county residents have tested positive for the coronavirus.
The 11 positive results, out of 1,046 tests, brought the number of active cases of COVID-19 in Ulster to 119, according to the county’s online dashboard of COVID
data.
There have been 2,167 confirmed cases of COVID in Ulster County since the outbreak began in March, 1,954 recoveries from the illness and 94 deaths.
No new deaths were reported Thursday.
Ryan said Thursday that one person in the county is hospitalized with COVID-19
The rate of positive results in the latest round of Ulster County testing was
about 1% — in line with the trend that’s been in place since early June, except for brief spikes in early July and early August.
At the local peak of the COVID-19 outbreak, in April, the number of active cases in Ulster County was 1,009 and the rate of positive test results was 33%.