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The second floor of Aquinas Hall will enter a mandatory quarantine after it was revealed that two students from that floor tested positive for the coronavirus in the last week, Seton Hall announced on Monday.
The email, which was sent out by Dean of Students Karen Van Norman to residents of the floor, said that the quarantine would last somewhere between 48 to 72 hours.
During that period students will be prohibited from leaving their rooms except to use the bathroom. The University said that meals would be delivered to students’ dorms to accommodate the order to shelter in place.
The University also announced that it would begin testing on all second-floor residents at noon and noted that students should expect to receive the results of their tests in the next 48 to 72 hours.
“We are taking this extra step of caution for the same reason we have done everything during this pandemic – with your health and safety first and foremost in our minds and our planning,” The email read.
According to the email, there is currently not a known connection between the two cases from the second floor but said that the mandatory testing and quarantine was out of an “abundance of caution.”
It is currently unclear just how many students are being impacted by the quarantine.
Cases for the last seven days are now up over 200% at Seton Hall when compared to the week prior. In the last week, the University reported 19 cases of COVID-19 on the South Orange campus compared to just six the week before. Of those 19 cases, only two were reported as being on-campus and were detected on Saturday and Thursday.
Nicholas Kerr can be reached at nicholas.kerr@student.shu.edu. Find him on Twitter @nickdotkerr.
