The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Southern logs its first COVID-positive tests
UConn climbs to 17 cases
NEW HAVEN — One student and one student employee have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus as testing begins on the Southern Connecticut State University campus before the start of the fall semester.
University President Joe Bertolino, in a letter to the Southern community, called it inevitable that there would be positive cases.
“When these cases were identified, we immediately engaged our contact tracing and cleaning protocols and have quarantined necessary students and staff,” Bertolino said in his message. “Both of the students are in isolation.”
Southern, like other residential higher education institutions in the state, have put in place detailed safety precautions which include requiring residential students to submit a negative COVID-19 test taken within the two weeks prior to moving on campus.
During the first full week of classes, in partnership with Griffin Health, Southern will also begin weekly testing of 5 to 10 percent of residential students and hall directors until the onground portion of the semester concludes at Thanksgiving break.
Bertolino said to protect privacy rights he does not anticipating sending out a community-wide message every time that a positive case occurs on campus. Instead,
he said, positive cases would be released and updated weekly through an online dashboard.
“But because these are the first cases to be identified as we prepare to launch the new academic year, I believe it is important to inform you and reiterate the protocols we have in place to handle these occurrences,” Bertolino said.
The University of Connecticut, where students have been moving in for the past week, is up to 17 on-campus students whose COVID-19 tests came back positive, the university announced on Friday.
Every student at the state’s flagship university is tested upon arrival and before they can move into a residence hall.
The 17 cases — among 5,423 tested — include five new positive cases within the last 24 hours.
Three cases were connected to the cluster of positive cases associated with the football team, and two had potential contacts prior to arriving to campus. These students were already under a medical quarantine, and asymptomatic, the university said.
UConn is also is aware of three cases among off-campus students who were tested because they will be visiting campus for classes, and two positive cases among faculty and staff who expect to be working regularly on campus.
UConn’s on-campus positive rate is 0.31 percent, university officials pointed out.