No positive COVID-19 cases found in Ernie Davis Hall
No positive COVID-19 cases found in Ernie Davis Hall
Vice Chancellor Michael Haynie confirmed in a schoolwide email late Friday there were no new positive cases after the testing team completed COVID-19 surveillance testing for all Ernie Davis Hall residents and staffers
The virus existence was likely “the result of an individual resident(s) previously infected by the SARS-CoV-2, no longer COVID-positive, but who may still be shedding inactive virus,” the email read. The administration then removed the quarantine mandate for all residents.
On Thursday, SU announced that Ernie Davis would be closed and all residents would have to quarantine after detecting “a possible instance of COVID-19 infection” based on the recent wastewater testing.
The presence of COVID-19 was only detected in the sewer for residence hall and not in that for the dining hall, according to Haynie’s email on Thursday.
SU had announced this summer that wastewater testing in campus dorms would be part of the university’s efforts to monitor and potentially preempt coronavirus outbreaks once students returned to campus.
“This is not a surprising development as epidemiologists fully expected to detect the presence of the virus by this method during this semester,” Haynie’s email stated.
Because of the detection, SU has begun to test all students, faculty and staff who live or may have worked or taken classes in the building, Haynie said.
Ernie Davis’ residents also received a separate email Thursday afternoon from SU’s public health team that asked them to return immediately. The university started room checks and sent testing teams to test all RAs and residents Thursday night and Friday. Food and other necessary services would be provided, according to the email.
Adam Wallander, the hall’s residence director, sent out an email Thursday night, requiring all residents to order meals for the following days through a link. The meals will be labeled with their names and dropped off at 8 a.m., noon, and between 5 and 6 p.m. each day in the lounges All outside food delivery services, such as Grubhub, would be prohibited.
Sasha Temerte, an economics sophomore living in the hall, said she was “flooded with an initial wave of fear” and frustration.
As of Friday, there were five active cases among students, faculty and staff.
After the first COVID-19 virus detection in the wastewater of Ernie Davis Hall on Thursday, Syracuse University has detected another weak signal from the wastewater of Sadler Hall on Friday.
SU’s Vice Chancellor Michael Haynie sent out a school-wide email Friday afternoon, stating that the testing team has completed COVID-19 surveillance testing for all Ernie Davis residents late last night. While the testing results and following actions are to be announced, epidemiologists detected “a very weak virus signal in the wastewater from Sadler Hall,” Haynie wrote in the email.
The situation at Sadler is “fundamentally different” to that at Ernie Davis, where the virus signal was stronger. It is suspicious that the virus detection may relate to the recent recovered residential cases of COVID-19 at Sadler, the email read.
Even though the wild situation does not warrant a quarantine for all residents, the public health team did suggest a COVID-19 surveillance testing of all Sadler residents and continued monitoring of the wastewater from the hall, Haynie wrote in the email.
In a separate email that was sent to Sadler’s residents, the public health team asked all residents to be available for testing today, “before 6 p.m. if possible.” Two testing stations have been set up on the Quad, per the email.
“We appreciate everyone’s cooperation as we take these important actions to keep our community safe,” Haynie wrote at the end of the school-wide email.
was the lead data producer at The NewsHouse and an alumnus majored in international relations and news/digital journalism at Syracuse University.
