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Hancock residents selected for prevalence testing following positive case, wastewater indicators

Hancock is the fifth residence hall to be selected for testing in the past week

<p>The requirement also intends to alleviate the pressure that students may face finding housing off-Grounds, which for many students is already a stressful experience as they scramble to find housing options and sign leases as early as September in their first year. &nbsp;</p>

The requirement also intends to alleviate the pressure that students may face finding housing off-Grounds, which for many students is already a stressful experience as they scramble to find housing options and sign leases as early as September in their first year.  

Residents of Hancock dormitory were sent an email Tuesday informing them that all residents are required to participate in asymptomatic prevalence testing Wednesday. There is currently one confirmed case of COVID-19 in the residence hall, but wastewater indicators suggest other possible infections.

“Taking all available information into account, we believe that the most appropriate course of action is to conduct COVID-19 testing of all Hancock residents, while also continuing to closely monitor and test the wastewater,” the email read.

The Hancock resident who tested positive for COVID-19 is in isolation housing and contact tracing is underway, according to the email. 

For all other residents, testing is mandatory unless students apply for an SDAC accommodation. Testing will be conducted in the Student Activities Building — each resident has been assigned a 10 minute time slot to be tested Wednesday, though they can reschedule for another time the same day if they have a conflict.

The email also said that students would not face disciplinary consequences for disclosing information during the contact-tracing process or receiving positive results.

This comes less than a week after the detection of possible COVID-19 outbreaks in Balz-Dobie, Lefevre, Echols and Kellogg dorms. Further testing of these residence halls disclosed 10 additional cases in Balz-Dobie, three cases in Lefevre, two additional cases in Echols and seven additional cases in Kellogg.

According to the University’s COVID Tracker, there have been 569 cases of COVID-19 since Aug. 17, 515 of which are students and 224 of which are active. Seven new student cases were reported Monday.

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