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Three Syracuse University students living on the eighth floor of Day Hall have tested positive for the coronavirus, a university official announced Sunday.

SU required all of the floor’s residents to receive COVID-19 testing Sunday afternoon at a testing station on the Quad. All residents will have to quarantine in their rooms until the university receives test results, likely within 24 to 48 hours, according to an SU News release.

“We are working quickly to implement all facets of our response protocol to ensure any trace of COVID-19 is quickly detected and contained to limit potential spread,” said Vice Chancellor Mike Haynie, who has spearheaded SU’s COVID-19 response, in a campus-wide email.

Residents of Day Hall’s eighth floor were required to receive testing no later than 4 p.m. Sunday. SU also performed room checks in Day Hall starting at 4:30 p.m. Meals were delivered to the residents in brown bags later in the afternoon.

The university is not requiring Day Hall residents who do not live on the eighth floor to quarantine, Haynie said. But the university encourages all the building’s residents to receive COVID-19 testing out of an “abundance of caution.”

Sunday marks the first time SU has placed a dorm on lockdown for confirmed COVID-19 cases among residents. SU’s wastewater testing program has identified traces of the virus in Ernie Davis Hall and Sadler Hall, but no students in those dorms tested positive after the university performed immediate testing.

The quarantine protocol for residents of Day Hall’s eighth floor is similar to the measures SU implemented after identifying traces of the virus in the wastewater of Ernie Davis. Ernie Davis residents had to quarantine for a day while the university processed their tests.

The university has also seen an uptick in COVID-19 cases among students since Labor Day weekend. SU reported nine cases on Friday among students in central New York and 30 active cases among SU students and employees in central New York.

Most of the new student cases are from students who traveled outside the region during Labor Day weekend, SU officials have said.

SU also placed two members of its chapter of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority in isolation last week after they tested positive for COVID-19. The university put the chapter’s house under quarantine. The Greek organization’s chapter house is the first that SU placed under quarantine since the start of residential instruction.

“We will continue to communicate with you directly and often as we work through the process of tracking and isolating any possible infection within this community of students,” the university’s public health team said.

Published on September 20, 2020 at 3:11 pm

Contact Abby: akweiss@syr.edu | @abbyweiss_21