First Confirmed Positive COVID-19 Test Result
August 29, 2020
Dear Trinity Students and Families, Faculty and Staff,
We’re writing to let you know that we have confirmed our first on-campus case of COVID-19 this fall. The positive test result came this morning through our campus testing program for a student who arrived on campus recently. The student is feeling well and has been moved to isolation following our protocols. To protect the person’s privacy, we will not release any more information about this student; we will inform you of any developments that might affect the campus community.
The systems we put in place for the start of the semester are being deployed effectively, including testing, notifications, and contact tracing. The student had sustained interaction with a very limited number of people on campus since arriving.
We’re likely to learn of other positive cases within our community through the fall. Moving forward, we will not send a community email every time there’s a positive result. In addition to careful contact tracing—in which all affected individuals will be contacted directly—we will keep the community apprised of the prevalence of the virus on campus through our newly launched COVID-19 testing dashboard. We encourage you to visit the dashboard frequently to see the latest information on our campus testing program, as well as the current campus alert level.
The data shared there include a count of active cases of COVID-19 on our campus (that number is one as of today), as well as a summary of tests processed through our testing center—both the number of tests conducted and the results of those tests. We will update the testing data on the dashboard twice a week, and when you visit the webpage, you’ll be able to see when the data were last updated.
Currently, the dashboard shows two positive tests among our student population. Please note that the other positive result in addition to the case described above does NOT represent an active case of COVID-19 on campus. Individuals who were diagnosed with COVID-19 may continue to test positive within three months of the initial infection, even though they are not spreading COVID-19. In this instance, the individual had previously tested positive for the virus before their arrival on campus and is past the stage of isolation requirements.
For students on campus, please call the Health Center (860-297-2018) or Campus Safety (after hours, 860-297-2222) if you’re experiencing symptoms; employees should follow their departmental call-out procedures and not come to work if feeling ill. For more information about our COVID-19 response, please refer to the college’s COVID-19 website. And please continue to take care of yourselves and one another.
Sincerely,
Martha O’Brien, APRN Director of Health Center
Joe DiChristina, Vice President for Student Success and Enrollment Management
