Quinnipiac COVID-19 positive cases continue to rise

Matthew Jaroncyk, Beat Reporter
October 12, 2020

Quinnipiac students were put on high alert Tuesday night when they received an email that 10 students tested positive for COVID-19.

The email comes after the associate vice president of public relations John Morgan released a statement on Wednesday that three off-campus students tested positive for the virus.

The email sent by senior medical advisor David Hill mentions that 10 of the confirmed cases were reported in the past seven days, with six coming in the past 48 hours.

The email also advised students that due to the increase in cases, the University will be moving from its previous green campus risk level to a yellow risk level.

The news sits uneasily for some students like first-year marketing major Jillian Gallagher.

“I feel mostly safe still knowing that most of them are off-campus,” Gallagher said. “It’s definitely a little less secure, I feel a little less secure than before the email but I still feel mostly safe.”

Safety continues to be the number one priority for students, as the pandemic has altered what was once considered a “normal routine”.

In the wake of the recent news, students like first-year health sciences and physical therapy major Caitlin Greene believe that the protocols the University enforce makes her feel really safe.

“Personally, I do feel really safe here. I feel like everything is sterile and they’ve done a very good job at making sure that students are being distanced and the proper cleaning protocols and everything. So personally I do feel very safe here.”

Because of the number increased, the university has now increased the number of off-campus testing.

The students have since been self-isolating in the reserved dorms for COVID-19 patients, as the school continues to work with contract tracers to see if anyone else has been potentially exposed.

This is one of the recent headlines that have colleges and universities concerned, as the University of New Haven and Trinity College are seeing similar patterns.

The news also comes as the state of Connecticut enters Phase III, allowing for outdoor event venues to increase to 50% capacity.

Quinnipiac has since updated its COVID-19 dashboard for cumulative student testing, adding an additional 11 cases, putting the total number of positive cases to 21.