By Elizabeth Ednie
Only seven people on campus tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the semester, according to newly released numbers to The Summit.
The College had only released the percentage of positive cases each week but will now provide the exact number of those who test positive starting Sept. 21. The Summit received the numbers exclusively this weekend.
This comes after Gov. Charlie Baker announced the state will now provide the numbers of positive cases at higher education schools, although the numbers released last week did not list specific schools.
At Stonehill, students, faculty and staff are tested a minimum of once a week and athletes have been tested twice a week since the College reopened.
Since Aug. 24, there have been 12,669 tests processed and there have been a total of seven positive tests.
COVID-19 percentages have been sent out weekly via the Monday Morning Update newsletter, but that will now include the exact numbers.
The College has just completed four weeks of asymptomatic surveillance testing with last week’s percentage shown at 0.04 and the week before at zero. Due to health and safety reasons, the College has only been publishing the percentages but will begin to give more information regarding numbers of positive test results.
While the numbers have been encouraging at Stonehill, college officials remain cautious.
“We are not getting ahead of ourselves or taking false comfort from it. To ensure the health and safety of our community, we must remain vigilant all every day and every day,” Martin McGovern, director of communications and media relations said.
McGovern said the College wanted to balance individual privacy with the community’s desire for more information on weekly test results. Since the College is small, he said, there was a concern individuals could be identified.
“We just wanted to be very careful up front and not identify anyone who tested positive and not to inadvertently single out anyone in our close-knit community who may have tested positive,” McGovern said.
The seven positive cases out of 12,669 translates to 0.07 percent over the first four weeks of the semester, McGovern said.
Broken down, weeks one and two both had three positive cases, the third week consisted of zero, and in the fourth week there was just one. Each week, the College has tested roughly 3,100 people.
McGovern said the College is proud of the numbers so far into the semester, but urges students, staff and faculty to continue taking the necessary precautions to stay healthy.
“Our focus is on a semester-long period of vigilance in terms of health and safety measures to keep our numbers to a minimum.” McGovern said.
“We must continue to ‘Protect the Nest’ and spread the message we are all involved in,” he said.
(Rachel Galatis assisted with this report)
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