By: Cullen McIntyre, Editor-in-Chief
A student located in the freshman dorm Upton-Hastings has tested positive for COVID-19. The resident is the second confirmed case from the University’s asymptomatic testing during move-in week and is the first case for a student living on campus.
An email sent out to students living in the building from Residential Life confirmed that the student followed the quarantine period until receiving their results and no close contacts were identified.
Residential Life echoed the statement President Glenn Cummings included in his email about the first positive case, “This is a good time to remember the point of asymptomatic testing: We actually want to find positive cases. That’s why we’re screening. While it may seem counterintuitive, there’s great value in identifying people who are positive so we can take measures to keep the virus from spreading within the USM community.”
The email continued to add that “out of an abundance of caution, additional cleaning procedures were put in place today.”
Preventative measures that students are taking to avoid the spread of COVID-19 include:
- Wearing face coverings at all times when outside of their assigned dorm room.
- Practice social distancing.
- Keeping number of close contacts limited.
- Washing hands and/or using hand sanitizer frequently.
The student will now follow isolation protocols the University has put in place in collaboration with the Maine CDC.
Students that were tested during move-in week will now begin phase two asymptomatic testing over the course of this next week.