Residents in a St. Thomas first-year dorm hall will be tested for COVID-19 and will enter a two-week quarantine after five students on the floor tested positive, the St. Thomas Center for Well-Being announced Thursday evening in an email to students, faculty and staff. This is the first residence hall outbreak on campus.
Numerous residents confirmed that it is the second floor of Brady Hall. All 29 students on that floor have until 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2 to leave the residence hall and quarantine, according to multiple residents, including a TommieMedia staff member.
“We were sent an email around 6 p.m. today explaining that we will all be getting tested for COVID tomorrow morning. Regardless of the results of the test, we are all quarantining for the next 14 days,” Brady Hall Resident Adviser Julia Lindell said.
According to the St. Thomas preparedness plan, those diagnosed with COVID-19 are expected to stay home until they are fever-free for 72 hours and 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared and others have improved. Residential students who are unable to isolate or quarantine off campus will be moved to temporary isolation housing.
The email sent to St. Thomas students, faculty and staff explained that the university made the decision to prevent any further spread of COVID-19. There is still no evidence of transmission in labs or in classrooms on campus, the email stated.
“We would like to echo Dr. Sullivan’s note from last week,” the email said. “There is no need for alarm, but we cannot become complacent.”
First-year hall resident Addy Hackley said she was frustrated with the decision to quarantine the floor.
“I feel like this is a bit dramatic,” Hackley said. “I understand for safety purposes, but it is unfortunate.”
The Center for Well-Being advised students, faculty and staff in the email to continue to follow the COVID-19 guidelines established by the university. Those include maintaining distance, wearing face coverings, washing hands and avoiding large gatherings.
In a Sept. 21 email, President Julie Sullivan said, “These next few weeks will be absolutely critical in determining if we can remain open for in-person instruction. If we can stabilize our number of positive cases, we will be in a strong position.”
Several Brady Hall residents were frustrated by Thursday’s announcement.
First-year student Macy Meilahn-Kinard said she’s disappointed to miss club soccer practice for the next few weeks.
“I was just starting to meet the girls and bond over our love of soccer,” Meilahn-Kinard said.
Added resident Monti Knewtson, “I am just disappointed because I was having such a good time at St. Thomas and looking forward to fall weather here on campus.”
Emily Haugen, Macy Berendsen, Leila Weah and Burke Spizale contributed to this report.
Hi, I just wanted to catch a few errors in this article. The second floor of Brady Hall has 29 residents, not 34. Also, we weren’t required to leave the residence hall. There are still a few of us left on the floor and will be completing our quarantine here, not in quarantine/isolation housing. I also have heard that this isn’t the “first residence hall” outbreak as there have been a few outbreaks in suites in the new residence halls. We are just the first instance of the whole floor having to quarantine (probably because we have communal bathrooms).