Scent tents to help combat COVID-19 at Sacred Heart

Tents with floral arrangements have been installed outside various buildings on the Sacred Heart University campus to serve as a test of sense of smell, one of the many obvious symptoms of COVID-19.

The university said it installed 10 scent tents across campus, as it continues to ramp up testing — having tested 25 percent of its on-campus residential population last week.

“These scent tents are not only aesthetically pleasing, but they provide a way to test if your sense of smell is intact,” university officials said. “Loss of sense of smell and taste can be early symptoms of the coronavirus, so take time to stop and smell the roses.”

Sacred Hart University said it tested nearly 775 full-time undergraduate students last week. This week, the university expects to test 1,300 — which is 25 percent of the entire undergraduate population. Next week, the university intends to test more than 50 percent of its student population, with 2,800 tests expected to be performed.

The university does random and targeted testing, and boasts of an “extremely aggressive” contact tracing program to help identify potential positive cases.

University officials said they are working with Yale’s medical school to introduce a saliva-based coronavirus test, expected to significantly reduce wait-time for results and testing costs, to Sacred Heart University in the coming days.

On Sept. 25, Sacred Heart officials said since Sept. 23, an additional seven students on campus tested positive for the virus, and another 15 among off-campus students — primarily linked to two off-campuses houses. During that same time frame, 12 students recovered and were released from isolation.

Sacred Heart said its students who have tested positive for the virus remain asymptomatic or are experiencing “very mild” symptoms.

The University of Connecticut reported an additional positive case of the coronavirus on its Storr campus on Monday, putting the campus total at 55 current positive or suspected positive on-campus cases. The new case was reported in a resident of the quarantined Belden Hall, the university said.

There were no new off-campus cases reported Monday, leaving the total number of virus cases among off-campus students at 68 since the school’s first phase of testing ended on Sept. 13, the university said.

Seven faculty, staff and affiliates — which includes employees working at a UConn campus at least part of the time and employees of affiliated on-campus enterprises including dining and bookstore workers — have tested positive for the virus at UConn.

There have been 211 students who were positive or symptomatic have recovered and left isolation.

UConn said it continues to test students in large numbers as part of its ongoing effort to identify, contain and treat cases.

Trinity College in Hartford, which reported 15 new cases during the week of Sept. 14, reported four new cases last week.

Connecticut College in New London reported one new coronavirus case in an employee and performed 3,427 tests last week.

The week prior, the university performed 3,464 tests and reported one case of the virus in a student.