Another 4 students test positive
New cases tied to previous ones on campus; college reports 14 quarantines, 3 isolations
Four more students at SUNY New Paltz have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing to six the total number of active cases on the campus, the college reported Wednesday.
A seventh student who had the illness has recovered, according to the college.
Information posted online by the college said the four newly diagnosed students had close contact with students who previously tested positive for COVID. All six currently infected students are in quarantine, as are a dozen who took part in recent pickup basketball games that included an infected student.
In all, there are 14 SUNY New Paltz students in quarantine on campus, and three more in isolation, the college said.
The college did not say whether the four students newly added to the case total played in those games.
SUNY New Paltz’s fall 2020 semester began last Monday, Aug. 24 — marking the first time classes were taught on campus since March, when the SUNY system switched to all-online learning due to the growing pandemic. Still, only about 25%
of New Paltz’s classes are being taught in person as of now.
After the first on-campus COVID diagnosis last week, the college implemented mandatory testing, starting this past Monday, 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 college said Wednesday that 356 students had been tested on campus.
The college also said it has not received reports of any employees testing positive since the semester began.
Ulster County Assistant Deputy County Executive Dan Torres said Wednesday that COVID cases among SUNY New Paltz students are included in the countywide tally of cases.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced last week that New York state will require colleges to switch to remoteonly learning for two weeks if, over a two-week period, a school has 100 cases of COVID, or if the number of cases equals 5% of the oncampus population.
On Sunday, SUNY Oneonta became the first college in the state system forced to make the switch because of COVID cases exceeding 100. (Oneonta’s case total now exceeds 240.) Also, five Oneonta students were suspended because of large parties that were held last week.
Other schools in New York that have suspended students recently because of large gatherings are Marist College in Poughkeepsie, Syracuse University, SUNY Plattsburgh and SUNY Fredonia.
By the numbers
Ulster County on Wednesday reported only two new COVID cases among the 1,007 test results it received Tuesday, a rate of less than 0.2%. The county said it had 118 active cases as of Tuesday, including those at SUNY New Paltz.
Since the start of the COVID outbreak in March, Ulster County has had 2,192 cases, 1,980 recoveries and 94 deaths, according to the county’s online dashboard of COVID data.
Dutchess County, which last updated its online COVID data on Monday, reported 246 active cases, including seven in hospitals, out of the 4,868 total since March. Dutchess said 4,469 COVID patients have recovered and 153 have died.