HARTFORD, Conn — Just a day after warning students that in person classes could be cancelled due to rising COVID cases, the President of Sacred Heart University walked those comments back. “We are at a real point of decision about the future of the semester on ground,” said Sacred Heart President John Petillo in a video message on Monday.
But his Wednesday message was very different. “Please do not believe all the news that’s out there. It’s rumor and it’s rumor has no basis in reality. We have no plans to go online,” he said.
But what is reality is that Sacred Heart has seen a rapid rise in COVID cases. The test positive rate off campus is above 2%. They have 119 active COVID cases. Their alert level of yellow outlines a pivot to full remote learning as needed. The President gave a plea to take things more seriously. “We don’t want it and you don’t want it. But we do need your help.“
One campus that is taking things seriously is Quinnipiac University. They’ve logged only 1 COVID case so far. Their aggressive, targeted, weekly testing strategy of 15% of resident students and 25% off campus students hits all dorms and all programs. Medical Director David Hill remarked, “Someone might say that we’ve been lucky but I like to think that we’ve been very careful and methodical.“
QU has deployed student health ambassadors. Students are logging into a symptom tracker app daily and a robust 20 person contact tracing team begins identifying potential exposures within hours. “If we can get through September, October and mid November I think we can all celebrate this achievement and be really excited that we’ve been able to stay together as a community and continue our education,” said Hill.
FOX61 also performed a health checkup for the 17 campuses within the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities System. You may remember that Central Connecticut State saw clusters and Western had to cloister due to community spread in Danbury. Both situations are now under control. Mark Ojakian, the President of the Connecticut State Colleges & University System said the state has done a, “Really good job keeping the positivity rate low but that doesn’t mean that you take off your mask when you are in a gathering. That doesn’t mean you let your guard down. Now we need to be more vigilant than ever.“
As we take the temperature of Connecticut’s colleges and universities, the University of Hartford is now adjusting their strategy following an uptick in cases. The cumulative positive cases by week is trending up. Currently there are 12 active infections. Campus officials have identified the source of two clusters. “We did work with one residence hall to address some potential behavioral concerns and then off campus within our Greek life we’ve had some concerns or connections there,” said Molly Polk, the VP of Marketing & Enrollment.
As a result, U-Hart is stepping up surveillance testing. They are going from testing 5-10% of the population to 20-25% and for the first time they are including commuter and graduate students. But those benchmarks are only true if people show up. “All of the schools and colleges are dealing with a no-show rate still so we are over inviting until we can get a handle on the best way invite students and incentivize them to show up,” said Polk.
Unlike many colleges and universities across the state who have cobbled together contact tracing teams of students and staff. U-Hart has hired 18 registered nurses to make it their focus. Polk said it’s been, “Helpful to us to be able to quickly assess where we are and react to any positives that we have.”
In another quick check up. UConn just came out with their updated COVID numbers. Four new cases were identified on Wednesday. One is the new positives comes from Eddy Hall. It’s the third dorm that UConn has had to quarantine.