Nine New Cases of COVID-19 Pushes Marist to Level Yellow
Nine new positive cases of COVID-19 were reported on Oct. 8, sending the total number of cases to 17 this semester. The rise of new cases is a result of an off-campus party last weekend, Deborah Dicaprio, vice president for Student Affairs, said in an email to students Thursday evening.
Dicaprio said students that hosted and attended the party are being held responsible and will face disciplinary action accordingly. Working with the Dutchess County Department of Health, the Marist medical and contact tracing team is identifying and testing students that were potentially exposed to COVID-19 at the gathering. Students will be isolated until the results of the tests are released.
Prior to Thursday evening, there were only eight cases of COVID-19 at Marist this semester. As a result of the nine new cases, the college is now classified under code yellow on its COVID-19 Dashboard. The level indicates the presence of the virus remains low but there is potential for an increase in transmission.
Marist announced that it will be suspending Friday and Saturday classes as well as placing on-campus activities on hold. Dicaprio said, “Out of an abundance of caution, and to allow time for our contact tracers and medical team to identify, test, quarantine or isolate all those involved in this incident, we are taking the proactive step to put the campus on pause until further notice.”
The college is prohibiting all on-campus and off-campus gatherings, canceling all athletic team practices and closing the McCann Recreation Center. In addition, students are prohibited from visiting non-assigned residence halls and the campus is closed to all visitors.
Marist ceased alerting students of every new positive case on campus, unlike the beginning of the semester. The first alert to the student body came on Aug. 26 after Champagnat Hall residents were required to return to their dorms after several residents had come in contact with a student that tested positive for COVID-19 at an off-campus party. Another instance occurred on Aug. 31, in which all students were informed that the fifth floor of Leo Hall was under a quarantine.
Prior to Thursday evening, Marist had been updating its COVID-19 Dashboard without openly notifying students. According to the Assistant Vice President of Operations Diane Hart, “Since early September, the College has used its dashboard as the primary mechanism of communicating our COVID status to the community.”
Only under exceptional circumstances, which includes precautionary quarantines for a residence hall, will the Office of Executive Affairs notify the entire Marist community.
“We have over six weeks left together for the Fall semester, and hope you choose to do your part in the shared responsibility to keep the Marist community safe,” Dicaprio said.
In addition to the nine students in isolation at home or off campus, there is one student in isolation on campus, according to the college dashboard.
Hart said, “On an exception basis, for travel or health restrictions, the College has dedicated isolation and quarantine space,” in regards to the one student in isolation on campus. However, students are not allowed to isolate in their dorm rooms. Marist’s policy does require students to complete their quarantine or isolation at home.