The Oswego County Health Department Saturday reported an additional 43 cases of COVID-19 among students at SUNY Oswego, bringing the total number of cases on campus in the last to weeks to 126. Most of the cases have come in the last seven days.
The state health department's guidancesays that any college or university that sees 100 or more positive cases of COVID-19 among its on-campus population in a two-week period must move to remote learning for 14 days.
However, college officials said because the state's two-week reporting period ended Friday, the 43 cases reported Saturday do not count toward the 100 case threshold. The college ended the two-week period with 82 cases.
SUNY Oswego announced Friday it would suspend all athletics activity, including team meetings and workouts, for 14 days in response to a spike in COVID-19 cases.
"The campus has undertaken a pervasive social norming effort with outdoor kiosks, posters, digital signs and more to continue to stress the importance of self-quarantining if you are not feeling well, washing your hands, wearing your mask, socially distancing, limiting travel, and refraining from hosting or attending parties or large gatherings," SUNY Oswego President Deborah Stanley said in a news release Friday.
The college also announced it is increasing the number of rooms available for quarantine. Funnelle Hall, which was planned to be vacant this semester after undergoing renovations, will be used to quarantine students. That will more than double the number of rooms available for quarantine and isolation, officials said. As of Friday, 63 students were in on-campus quarantine, 55 were in isolation.
Stanley said Friday the school will expand its testing operation. A dedicated testing center will be opened on campus next week, and is expected to be open regularly for students and staff who are either symptomatic, or want to be tested. The testing center is expected to remain open for the rest of the semester.
College officials are also working with the city of Oswego to step up enforcement for off-campus students.
SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras visted the campus Wednesday, and said there was no cause for alarm because of the increase in cases.
"We want to keep students here and operating,” Malatras said Wednesday. “If there has to be some mitigation efforts taken, we will keep students here as much as we can. But, we all have to remain vigilant and we all have to continue to do the right thing and socially distance, and wear our masks and not go to mass gatherings.”
