COVID-19 cases increase on campus

There has been a rise of student COVID-19 cases. St. John’s has had cases that stemmed from St. Patrick and the neighboring St. Boniface Halls, which prompted the email sent over a week ago implementing new policies for students. St. Ben’s may not be far behind. Many cases at St. Ben’s are in upper class students, as students mingle unmasked and not socially distanced.

Mary Geller shared with me the procedure that both schools are referencing when they begin to see a rise in cases. This plan is called a “pivot plan,” which is a document listing four stages of responses that the school will take in response to COVID-19. If cases were to spread, more restrictions would follow. The pivot plan is not only meant to combat a surge in cases but also to prevent a surge from happening at all.

Geller stressed that through contact tracing, many students have contracted the virus while eating together, spending time together unmasked for long periods of time and transferring between “pods.” A “pod” is a group of 3-5 friends who spend time with each other exclusively to reduce contact while being social. Many students have created pods and many are socializing in small groups. However, mingling to and from different pods can put everyone in the community at risk. “There has been no institutionally sponsored event that we can trace a positive [case] to. It’s what students are doing in their free time,” that is causing the rise said Geller.

In an interview with Richard Ice and Mike Connolly, they discussed how both administrations prepared for the rise of cases over the summer. “We’re talking, not only together, but we’re talking to our colleagues at other colleges too. We see what they’re doing and what patterns they’re seeing,” Ice said. The colleges spent their time this summer compiling a series of actions they can take to reduce cases rather than working on individual scenarios of what could happen. Many colleges have been reaching out to each other to come up with the safest procedures for campus life while also trying to keep everyone together as a community.

As far as testing, an anonymous CSB student had a positive experience with health services on campus. “I felt as though they cared about me as well, because they sent security to escort me to Health Services after I called and said I was too weak to get there alone,” the student said via email. The student expressed that they think the administration could also be more assertive, and that in the beginning of the block, they struggled to find policies on guests. They also said that the rules on wearing masks were not explicit enough.

Despite many of the contact-traced cases originating from social interactions on campus, going out on weekends also exposes our community to risks.