SUNY Morrisville has its first known positive cases of COVID-19 among residential students. News of each student’s diagnosis was received today. Contact tracing is underway, led by the Madison County Department of Health.
One student is a resident of the Commons residential halls. This student was last on campus Sunday, Oct. 4. The student pursued a test in Onondaga County that day, then went to a home address in Saratoga County and remained there. The student informed the college today of the positive diagnosis. The student is now in mandatory isolation in Saratoga County. Close contacts of the student are under mandatory quarantine in their suites in the Commons (which have private kitchenettes and bathrooms within them). Other contacts might be identified through the contact tracing process and will be informed if they are required to quarantine as well.
Another student is a resident of West Hall. The student was tested for cause this morning at the Student Health Center, where a rapid test returned a positive result. The student moved to mandatory isolation in South Hall, the designated quarantine and isolation facility on campus. This student’s contacts are also from West Hall, and they will also move to South Hall for mandatory quarantine.
The most recent results from the college’s pooled saliva testing and campuswide wastewater testing have come back negative. We are comparing these recent diagnoses against the test results from our wastewater and pooled saliva testing. These are all emerging technologies using different approaches, and answers about why some detect and others do not are not always evident.
Daily updates on the college’s COVID-19 testing, quarantine, isolation and other data are available through the SUNY COVID-19 Tracker dashboard webpage. The college posts its latest wastewater data on its own webpage.
Contact tracing (the process of identifying and notifying people who might have been exposed to an infected person during a contagious period) does not always mean that every student, faculty or staff member in the same spaces as an infected person will be informed. Only those individuals deemed to have been at risk of exposure (close contact) will be contacted or notified. Contact tracing is designed not to share the name of the person who may have exposed others. The process is kept anonymous and confidential.
We ask all individuals to be responsive, cooperative, honest and thorough in providing information to contact tracing investigators. Timely responses are key in the effort to contain any potential spread of exposure or infection.
Individuals are often deemed to be close contacts for one or more of three primary reasons: 1) not wearing a mask around others, or others not wearing a mask around them, 2) not keeping at least six feet of distance from others, and 3) spending a length of time around others.
Madison County Department of Health (MCDOH) is partnering with SUNY Upstate Medical University to bring their mobile testing clinic to offer a COVID-19 nasopharyngeal diagnostic tests by appointment only in Morrisville this Thursday, Oct. 8, from 3 to 7 p.m. The location is Morrisville Community Church, 3824 Swamp Rd, Morrisville. Anyone who would like to be tested should call 315.464.2582 and select option 0 to set up an appointment. For more information, visit the Madison County Health Department website at https://www.madisoncounty.ny.gov/2479/Coronavirus-COVID-19.
You can best protect yourself by properly wearing a mask over your mouth and nose, keeping distance and not gathering with others, and following other hygiene recommendations.
If you have questions about your health, please contact the Student Health Center. If you have questions about conduct, please contact the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities. If you have COVID-19-related questions or concerns, please use our online form.