Mount Aloysius College student tests positive for COVID-19
President: Quarantine, contact tracing taking place
CRESSON — A Mount Aloysius College student who returned to campus last week has tested positive for COVID-19.
According to a release from college President John McKeegan, students began arriving on campus last week and the positive test was confirmed Sunday.
The Mount’s reopening plan had called for students who are traveling from outside the United States, certain states and Pennsylvania counties identified as COVID-19 hot spots to arrive on campus early for testing and quarantine.
McKeegan said the student who tested positive has been quarantined in a private room and that contact tracing, where anyone who may have come in contact with the infected student is notified of the positive test result, is underway.
McKeegan said the early return policy the Mount instituted this year did what it was intended to do.
“Our early return policy was implemented for such a circumstance,” he said. “While a positive test is unsettling, these measures allow us to manage the situation.”
McKeegan said the Mount continues to monitor the situation and that the community will be informed of any significant updates or changes in cases, such as multiple reported cases or signs of community spread.
Mount Aloysius Director of Communications Sam Wagner said students who are not in the Mount’s hot spot areas are due to return to campus Friday. Classes will begin Aug. 24.
Wagner said additional information and updates can be found on the college’s coronavirus web page at www.mtaloy.edu/coronavirus.