Today: Mar 28, 2024

Students need to continue to be cautious until break

Sam Tapper Managing Editor

Thanksgiving break is a week away–one week until the campus shuts down and classes shift back to fully online. One week sounds like an instant, but our guards must be as high as ever in the home stretch.

As a university, we are one of the lucky ones to have made it this far. Many colleges and universities across the country–even here in Connecticut–did not make it.

However, a lot can happen in one week, and we are beginning to see that.

We will not be fully out of the woods until we all get sent home, and even then, the virus is not going away.

As of Nov. 12, the university surpassed 100 positive cases according to the Campus COVID-19 dashboard, a number that should not be overlooked.

One positive case is too many, that much is known. But to reach the triple digits is at the very least unnerving, especially because over 75 percent of positive cases come from commuters, making it harder to isolate and trace.

Along with the numbers in the Nov. 12 dashboard, there was a notice reporting that all Brownell Hall residents will be quarantined to “contain the potential spread of COVID-19.” According to the release, the quarantine period will only last until Nov. 16, barring any building-wide outbreak.

As of Friday, Nov. 13, the University of Connecticut announced that its entire campus community would be quarantined due to a rapid spike in positive cases in Storrs.

The quarantine period will last until everyone is sent home for Thanksgiving break. According to The Hartford Courant, UConn’s Associate Vice President and Dean of Students Eleanor Daugherty wrote a memo to students saying, “we don’t have the COVID spread under control.” Stop me if this sounds eerily familiar.

The point is, a lot can happen in a week; A lot can change; a lot can go wrong. While I understand that we all want to see our friends before the near two-month hiatus, we cannot let that cloud our judgement window.

If we are all careful, this last week will be just like the previous ones: tough, but manageable. However, if we are not careful, we could end up like UConn.

It would not take much to have us all end up quarantined in our respective residence halls, with nothing to do but attend our online class and wait for one of Sodexo’s premade meals. So now, we must ask ourselves if that is really the direction we want to go.

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