Colleges in Worcester are committed to ensuring the health and safety of students and those living off campus, two top city officials are assuring the City Council.
City Manager Edward Augustus and Health and Human Services Commissioner Dr. Matilde Castiel told the council in a pair of memos before the council’s meeting Tuesday evening the city’s colleges have been working hard to keep people safe, as coronavirus case numbers have risen since the fall semester began.
“There is a strong commitment from our academic partners to ensure the health and wellbeing of their campus and off-campus communities by instituting strict testing and guidance protocols,” Castiel said.
Worcester’s colleges have operated under a range of modes this fall. College of the Holy Cross and Quinsigamond Community College, for example, have virtually no on-campus courses, even as Holy Cross hosts some students in dormitories. Others are generally holding classes only partly on-campus, and also online, with classes held with students spaced farther apart and often with more time left between classes to allow for cleaning.
Worcester has been in the state’s red category of pandemic classification, for highest risk, for much of the fall as its rate of new cases has exceeded eight per 100,000 people. In the most recent update on such numbers from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, on Wednesday, Worcester was joined by a dozen other Central Massachusetts cities and towns in the red designation.
The city’s rising rate is being closely monitored, Castiel said, and will play a role in potentially imposing stricter policies by city officials. Officials have created a pandemic response team, Castiel said, made up of members from 11 local colleges, as well as the city’s health and inspectional services departments.
Augustus and Castiel wrote to the council in response to a request for information from councilors regarding steps colleges have taken to regulate off-campus social gatherings. Schools have responded swiftly to any cases to ensure those who’ve been exposed are quickly isolated and testing performed, Castiel said.
In one case Castiel alluded to, a party at Holy Cross before the semester started led to 23 positive cases, all of whom have recovered. The school disciplined the party host, provided contact tracing and testing, and educated the entire campus community about expectations about keeping people safe, she said.
Despite incidents like that, Worcester schools have kept relatively low cases compared to other parts of the country.
Through Tuesday morning, College of the Holy Cross has had 21 positive tests, including 18 students, and Worcester State University has had 21 positive tests. Worcester Polytechnic Institute reported eight positive tests in the past 30 days, with 13 students quarantining on campus and another 17 off-campus. Clark University has reported six positive tests in the past 30 days and has 16 students in quarantine.
