UConn Residence Hall Placed in Quarantine After New COVID-19 Cases – NBC Connecticut
A residence hall at the University of Connecticut has been placed under medical quarantine starting on Saturday after multiple new cases of coronavirus in the building.
School officials said the school currently has 51 positive and/or suspected cases of coronavirus on campus. That number includes 12 new positive cases since yesterday, six of whom were already in medical quarantine, they added.
Students haven’t even been back on campus a week and already the school is taking action against some who aren’t practicing social distancing.
Three of the new cases are from the Willard C. Eddy residence hall, which school officials said is a stand-alone building in the Alumni Residence Hall Complex.
“A total of four cases have appeared in Eddy Hall, which is home to 96 residents, including 28 who already are in quarantine or isolation,” UConn said in part in a release. Due to those numbers, the school said it is placing all of Eddy Hall under medical quarantine starting on Saturday.
UConn has just announced that out-of-state students who are enrolled only in online courses will not be allowed to live in university housing this fall and the school is asking them to stay home for the semester.
According to an email sent by the school to residents of Eddy Hall, the quarantine status will need to continue until there is a clear decrease in transmission of COVID-19 and it may be longer than 14 days.
“Students will participate in an enhanced testing regimen with twice weekly surveillance testing of this population until we are able to assess the ongoing trends,” the school said in the email.
Students at UConn are adapting to a new college environment, with some returning to in-person classes while others face a mandatory quarantine.
The cumulative figure of confirmed positive residential students cases so far this semester is 147, school officials said.
UConn said there have been eight new positive cases since yesterday among off-campus students near UConn Storrs, including six who were already in medical quarantine. Three of the new off-campus cases live in The Oaks on the Square apartments, which remains under quarantine.
