The coronavirus outbreak at St. Michael’s College has swelled to 26 cases, school officials said over the weekend, and school will remain all remote until Nov. 1.
The 26 active cases are in isolation, the school said, and 137 students who have been identified as close contacts are now in quarantine.
“The Health Department’s contact tracing is ongoing and nearing completion. They have told us that we should expect some additional positive cases among those contacts now in quarantine,” St. Michael’s president Lorraine Sterritt said in an email to the school community Sunday.
All in-person activities, including sports and chapel services, have been canceled at the Catholic liberal arts school. Students are being asked to remain on campus to the extent possible, and not go travel home, even within Vermont.
The college first went remote earlier this week, when weekly surveillance testing revealed eight students were positive for the virus.
All on-campus students will be tested on Saturday, Oct. 31. There are about 1,500 students on campus at the Colchester school.
The private liberal arts college is the site of one of three ongoing outbreaks in Vermont right now, and cases are rising statewide. The Health Department reported 52 new cases over the weekend.
