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If a Syracuse University student tests positive during the final round of coronavirus testing for the semester, it will be up to the Onondaga County Department of Health to decide whether they can return home or must stay in the county to isolate, a university official said during a press conference Thursday.

The university plans to conduct one more round of campus-wide COVID-19 testing before students begin returning home for winter break. SU has already completed three rounds of campus-wide testing and will likely complete the final round between Nov. 10 and Nov. 12, Vice Chancellor Mike Haynie said.

If a student tests positive during that final round, the county health department may decide they need to stay in the county to isolate until they are cleared of the virus, Haynie said. The university can’t issue a legal quarantine or isolation order for students, he said.

“That last round of testing is really less about health and safety on our campus given our students will be departing,” Haynie said. “It’s more about doing the right thing by our students’ families and the communities they’re returning to ensure that we’re not sending students home that are, unbeknownst to them, (COVID-19)-positive.”

While Haynie couldn’t confirm what action the county would take in the event a student tests positive before departing for break, he said he believes students will be able to isolate at home so long as they live within driving distance of SU.

“My speculation is that, if a student is a car ride away from home, meaning in a single car ride that that individual doesn’t have to stop or anything along the way, the county may grant them permission to travel home and isolate at home,” Haynie said. “I do think, though, if airplanes, trains are involved, that will be a different scenario.”

If the health department does require students to isolate before returning home, the university will provide isolation facilities and accommodations, he said.

Haynie also said that SU’s new saliva testing facility will serve as a “back-up” in case Upstate Medical University, where SU currently sends students’ saliva samples for pooled-based coronavirus testing, becomes overwhelmed.

“Schools around the United States have realized how important this virus surveillance, this pooled saliva is in the context of really identifying these asymptomatic positive cases that exist across campus,” Haynie said. “We just want to make sure that as (Upstate’s resources) continue to get pulled and stretched to stand on our own if we need to.”

Published on October 29, 2020 at 2:07 pm

Contact Maggie: mehicks@syr.edu | @maggie_hickss