Many schools put infected in hotels if there is a shortage of isolation rooms at the campus.
My daughterâs college booked an entire hotel starting in the fall for Covid isolation, 2 students per room.
Colleges would have to pre-book an entire hotel for isolation purposes. They canât put infected students in a hotel with other guests. Besides, Ithaca area has few hotels (Cornellâs own hotel has already been filled to capacity).
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Colgate and Middlebury both bought hotels in their respective towns last year to use for isolation spaces. Colgate used theirs this fall to house upperclassmen so they could accommodate the overenrolled firstyear students. With no surveillance testing, I guess they donât need isolation spacesâŠ
Well, we picked up our daughter from college, took her home, and promptly administered an antigen test: Positive. After days of testing negative and trying her hardest to avoid people. Sheâs holed up in her bedroom trying to work on her paper and study for her final.
And in case anyone is wondering, she is triple vaxxed - received booster 3 weeks ago.
@Auntlydia, Is she symptomatic? and if so, how sick is she feeling?
Slightly tired, but otherwise nothing. She took a PCR earlier today at school. We will get the results tonight.
On top of all that, the WiFi from her bedroom is terrible. So to take her final, she will need to move into the kitchen area (which we will vacate) and take it with a mask.
Glad itâs not worse than that- but sorry for what she (and the rest of your family) are coping with.
Do you see next semester going virtual or remain in-person? Is there a possibility of mandatory masking and boosting? I think at this point most students would do whatever is necessary to avoid another virtual semester. If a small minority insists on individual rights over whole communityâs well being, then they should be entitled to go virtual to protect their rights and respect rights of the majority.
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We need to learn to live with Covid. Dr. Jha was interviewed this morning on Good Morning America and he specifically stated there is no reason not to hold full-time in-person classes. He said the goal of avoiding all Covid infections is unrealistic.
If you are vaxed and boosted, you should be fine. The mental and emotional toll isolation and fear takes on our young people is a real problem. Stop the shutdowns. Get vaxed, get boosted, mask indoors and move on with life!
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I agree that shutdowns are tremendously disruptive - even more to the K-12 group. But as the parent of a child who just tested positive, I can tell you that our family is feeling far from âfine.â Yes our daughter was vaxxed and boosted, but we have no idea whether we caught this virus, whether she will remain mostly asymptomatic or whether she (or one of us) might get really sick. I canât go into her room to check on her and itâs unclear how well she will perform on her remaining final (Iâm guessing sheâs rather take it remotely than put it off, but that may change). The final is scheduled for Wednesday. She might feel great, so-so, or lousy. Oh and she still has to hand in her term paper - tho I imagine she can get an extension on that.
Whatever this bug is, it isnât just a cold. I wish it were, but the last 18 hrs really hammers home how different this is.
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Why canât you check on her? If youâre both masked, you can check on her.
Also, this situation is not really different than our D who had a massive case of the flu starting on the day of her first final. Unlike your D, she was highly symptomatic and very sick. She had to arrange late finals for after she arrived home, not really knowing how long it would take to feel well enough to study. Her dean and profs were very supportive but her situation when it comes to finals is not all that different than a student with Covid.
Understood. I wish your family good health and a speedy recovery. My husband had a breakthrough infection and felt absolutely awful for 3 days. My son had a breakthrough infection after getting boosted and had nothing more than a cough. My other child and I never got it at all even though we live in the same house (we are all vaxed and believe in science & implementing mitigation strategies against virus spread).
My point is that we need to live with this virus, just like we live with many other serious viruses.
The vaccines, boosters and indoor masking make us safer from severe Covid infection. Several effective pharmaceutical treatment therapies are right around the corner. We need to move on with life. We can not shut down the world every time someone gets sick with an awful virus.
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Thanks. Maybe when Iâm on the other side of this, Iâll feel more comfortable with the life moves on concept. But at our home, we have entered a holding pattern. None of us wants to catch the virus (assuming my daughter has it - we are still waiting on the PCR she took before we picked her up from school to confirm yesterdayâs antigen) and D doesnât want to extend her semester if she can avoid it. My guess is that she will take the final on Wednesday but extend the paper (Iâm assuming Sociology prof will grant the extension).
Given how many of Dâs classmates tested positive in just the last week, I would assume that there will be some âherd immunityâ to Omicron among her college classmates by the time the third week of January rolls around. So, my hope is that her school resumes in person classes (they are already requiring the boosters).
One thing I would recommend to colleges is to get rid of PCR testing unless they can assure quick (less than an hour) turnaround. Iâd much rather have my daughter test daily with antigens, but thatâs obviously a cost/availability issue âŠ
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Yes! Iâm hoping for very mild symptoms and no household spread for you. My son missed over a week of college due to his positive test so I get it. He actually left college and came home to isolate (my husband drove him in our personal vehicle)
There was a big sense of relief after we were on the other side of the virus/isolation/quarantine process. All the best to you and your family!
Many colleges have already mandated this, Northeastern and Boston Universities to name two.
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And Bowdoin and Colgate and Wellesley and many many more colleges are requiring the booster for spring semester. Students have to get it asap after they hit the six months post second vaccine.
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