As of Oct. 15, the College has reported 17 active cases of COVID-19 and 15 recovered cases, with 73 students in quarantine and 17 in isolation. Prior to Oct. 2, the campus had a handful of reported cases without creating a noticeable trend in transmission between students.
According to an email send to the campus community on Oct. 7, Mike Taberski, vice president for Student and Campus Life, “in only a few days our campus has gone from 0 positive cases to 11, with nearly 70 students in quarantine.”
Taberski said in an email statement that all the positive cases following Oct. 2 were a result of students traveling elsewhere in the state, visiting with friends or family or students hosting visitors to the Geneseo community.
The virus then quickly spread to friends and has generated a controllable-sized outbreak, according to Dr. Steve Radi, medical director for Student Health and Counseling.
“The small pockets of outbreak that have occurred in the past two weeks and are affecting off-campus students, with the exception of, I believe, one student who is in an on-campus quarantine in Jones Hall,” Radi said.
According to Radi, the quick up-take in cases over the past two weeks has placed many students in a quarantine status as a result of the contact tracing conducted by the Department of Health.
“We are continuing with all parts of our program to keep the campus safe. The completion of the daily COVID-19 screenings on behalf of the students is key in helping us monitor the general health of the campus, both on and off,” Radi said.
The College is continuing to administer the saliva tests as a part of the surveillance testing program, testing approximately 500 to 600 students and faculty per week. Radi said those tests will continue up until Thanksgiving.