Two of the area’s largest universities are releasing details about their ongoing testing for COVID-19.
RIT launched its fall semester classes on Wednesday, and reported that its current RIT COVID-19 Alert Level is green. A statement from the university says that means the prevalence of coronavirus on campus is low, but the community must remain vigilant to maintain that status.
RIT says that the data collected in anticipation of students’ arrival on campus shows that they submitted 12,000 test results, and of those, 60 students, or .5 percent had a positive test. Those identified as being positive are not allowed to circulate on campus until they are cleared by health officials.
An update from the University of Rochester says that five students have tested positive so far after testing more than 1,500 students as part of the campus move-in and pre-arrival screening plan. Students began moving into housing at the U of R on Monday. Officials say students who tested positive were moved to isolation housing on campus or returned home.
Colleges and universities nationwide are dealing with some uncertainty about what their fall semesters will look like due to COVID-19.
The University of North Carolina and Notre Dame are two of the larger universities that have already changed their plans for on-campus instruction this fall, and this week Ithaca College announced that students will not return to campus for in-person classes this fall.