Over the course of two days, 115 Quinnipiac students learned they had Covid-19 — causing the university to go into “high-risk” lockdown mode.
A smaller outbreak has led to a partial lockdown of three Yale residential colleges.
As he processed the latest news, Quinnipiac sophomore Riley Millette made plans to move back home for the rest of the semester, as long as his Covid-19 test scheduled for Monday comes back negative.
Millette observed an exodus from campus as his peers packed up and moved out. “Pretty much everyone is going home,” he said on Saturday.
Earlier in the week, on Wednesday, Quinnipiac had pivoted all classes to an online-only format for the week after 108 students found themselves in isolation after contracting Covid-19, 55 of which had been diagnosed within the previous two days.
By Friday, the number of students isolating had nearly doubled to 212.
That night, the school imposed a 14-day “campus-wide quarantine,” permitting students to interact only with their roommates or suitemates. Students who have not tested positive or been contact-traced can leave their rooms only to retrieve meals and take “fresh air breaks”; they now have a curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., in line with Gov. Ned Lamont’s advisory.
Over the course of the semester, colleges throughout the country have confronted the question of how many Covid-19 cases would warrant a dorm-wide or campus-wide quarantine. Universities have weighed the need to contain the virus against the potentially heavy costs that a quarantine can have on students’ mental health and morale.
The same evening that Quinnipiac chose to quarantine campus after 212 students have isolated, Yale chose to place three dorms under a partial quarantine after 20 cases were discovered among those three residences. (Read more about that below.)
While some schools have made quarantine decisions based on a range of testing numbers, others, such as the New Jersey Institute of Technology, have quarantined dorms after discovering high Covid-19 levels in sewage samples.
The spike in Quinnipiac’s cases comes a week after Halloween, and after a massive party at Anthony’s Ocean View that disregarded Covid-19 safety measures and drew college students from Quinnipiac. The university sent 23 students home because they attended the Anthony’s Ocean View party.
Quinnipiac’s senior medical adviser for Covid-19, David Hill, wrote in an email to the Independent on Friday that “the increase in positive cases we are now seeing in a small percent of our residential and non-residential students reflects what is being seen in the region and state.”
“We do not know all the details surrounding potential student exposures at Anthony’s Ocean View since we are continuing with the analysis of our cases and their contacts, but public health officials have repeatedly said that social gatherings big and small can spread COVID,” Hill wrote.
The university is testing all residential and off-campus students on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.
Students living on campus are prohibited from leaving if they plan to return to campus, while off-campus students and visitors aren’t allowed on the premises. And earlier measures such as takeout dining, online-only classes, and a prohibition on gatherings are set to continue until November 18.
That leaves less than a week of in-person classes left before students depart for Thanksgiving break on November 25, and continue an online-only semester off campus for the rest of the term.
Contributed Photo
Riley Millette.
Millette calculated that it isn’t worth staying on campus for only a handful of face-to-face classes. He hails from Plainville, Conn., so it’s not too difficult for him to return home.
Four of his other suitemates are also planning to leave campus, he said; the fifth is from far-away New Zealand.
The feeling that campus had shut down began to set in when the student newspaper for which Millette is a sports editor, the Quinnipiac Chronicle, decided to cease print operations for the semester, he said. For the rest of the semester, Tuesdays — typically the day that the newspaper team finalizes each weekly issue inside the media suite — won’t be the same.
For now, Millette has been spending most of his time inside, watching lots of football with his suitemates and FaceTiming with friends.
On Saturday, an unusually warm November day, he and his suitemates ventured outside to play a game of football themselves. They weren’t alone. Millette recalls seeing about fifteen other students, all spread out, having picnics or lounging on blankets.
“I just thought it was funny how many people were outside during a lockdown,” he said.
Yale Quarantines Dorms, Warns Against Indoor Dining
Contributed Photo
Lauren Gatta.
Meanwhile, three Yale residential colleges — Davenport, Hopper, and Saybrook — were placed under a temporary quarantine on Friday evening after a total of 20 students from those dormitories tested positive for Covid-19.
According to an email from Yale Covid-19 Coordinator Stephanie Spangler, the cases detected in those colleges appear to be connected and have been linked to “social gatherings and dining in restaurants.”
Lauren Gatta, a senior art major living in Hopper, found out from a friend about the quarantine she would be placed under.
When she checked her email, she read that she would need to remain in her suite except to take Covid tests, pick up meals, and go outside for 15-minute outdoor breaks within her college courtyard until Thursday morning.
Gatta had already contracted Covid-19 last spring, and she doesn’t know anyone who contracted Covid in the recent cluster. While she doesn’t feel that she really needs to quarantine, she said she understands why the measure was put into place.
“I really think that the spikes were due to Halloween parties,” she said. She hopes that other students will get the message that social distancing should be taken seriously — especially first-year students, she noted. “They’re going a little overboard with the social gatherings.”
For now, Gatta said, she’s using the time ahead to focus on schoolwork. She’ll be attending her in-person graphic design class remotely from Zoom. The worst part about quarantining now, she said, is the sunny 70-degree weather outside.
Yale has reported a total of 31 Covid-19 cases among students in the last 7 days, as well as 11 cases among staff and faculty.
The university issued new guidelines to community members on Friday in response to rising cases.
Provost Scott Strobel urged students, faculty, and staff to avoid indoor dining within restaurants as well as social gatherings involving food and drink.
“All residential college students are strongly encouraged to limit activities off-campus,” Spangler wrote in an email.
In-person athletic practices at Yale were also canceled through at least the end of the weekend.
As Quinnipiac shifted its Covid-19 dashboard alert to a red “high risk” level, Yale switched to an orange “moderate risk” alert. The University of New Haven, which had recently recovered from a previous outbreak, switched to a yellow “intermediate risk” after coasting for a couple of weeks at a “low-risk” green.
This story was produced with financial support from Solutions Journalism Network.
Previous stories:
• Yale Spends, Tests More; Practices Vary
• Students Play The Covid Heavy
• 2 Campuses, Week 1: Zoom vs. Zip
• Albertus Continues Convocation Tradition, With A Twist
• Yalies Begin 14-Day Dorm Quarantines
• “K.I.S.S.” Keeps Auto Cohort Humming After Covid Scare
• Future Mechanics Return To Class In Person
• In Car Lab, They’re Geared Up For Covid
• Prof, Students Forge “Hybrid” Routine
• Coronavirus Takes A Seat
• Despite An Outbreak, Colleges Stay Course
• Covid-Positive Chef: UNH “Bats Blind Eye”
• Classes Move Online As Outbreak Spreads
• Colleges Confront Climbing Covid Cases
• Covid Outbreak Moves QU Classes Online
Why are these schools tolerating these student's behavior and their obvious refusal to accept the guidelines given to them by their institutions? Apparently these schools are not very good about following through with consequences. These young kids are behaving like spoiled brats and morons. I blame the schools who are not upholding their own guidelines and the students know they won't follow through so they repeat their bad behavior. I also think a place like Anthony's who held these parties should be held accountable, not just by getting closed until further notice but some type of fine for knowingly hosting a gathering that was against the State Department Health's guidelines.