The University of Connecticut says it has placed thirteen students in a two week quarantine on campus. Two residents and three commuter students had tested positive for COVID-19 during welcome weekend. UConn said less than one percent of students visiting campus have the virus.
Harry Zehner, a rising senior at UConn, said he is glad he chose to take classes online from an apartment in New Haven because students are already throwing parties.
“I’ve had friends who have run into fraternity members, like, in Storrs buying equipment for like, a beer pong tournament. It seems like a lot of people are just resuming life as normal,” Zehner said.
Zehner said the lack of social distance is distressing, but predictable, after the administration decided to allow students back on campus.
UCONN said in a statement that it has on-campus test results for more than two-thirds of residential students, as of Monday (3,000 out of 5,500 residential students on Storrs campus and 250 or so on campus in Stamford).
“Given the volume of testing we are doing, it was inevitable that there would be positive cases,” said Eleanor Daugherty, UConn Dean of Students. “Knowing this, the university has a clear and detailed strategy in place we can quickly implement to address any positives, and have already done so in these cases.
“The students who tested positive have been notified and relocated to dedicated isolation space on campus. We have also notified their small family unit cohort, identified as ‘close contacts’, and they are being placed on a two-week self-quarantine and will be retested,” she said. “This is exactly why UConn created the 14-day quarantine period for our residential students in advance of the start of classes at the end of the month.”
