I hope you have gotten some good rest these past two weeks. We have two more weeks before we welcome students back to campus, and we are excited (and busy)!
One major goal is to get everyone back on campus healthy. There are a few steps to this, and I write them again below as a reminder. As you know, it takes commitment from all of us to keep the community safe, so we need your help.
Safe Transition
First, in a few days (on Feb. 11) Hotchkiss students and the campus community will enter a 10-day "Safe Transition" period. During this time all should minimize contact with people outside the household, not engage in high-risk activities, and avoid all but essential travel. Athletes should suspend participation in leagues, on club teams, or at showcases.
Some other boarding schools have seen dozens of their students test positive before returning to campus. The Safe Transition period is meant to prevent these complications and reduce the likelihood that the virus will come to campus. If testing is readily available in your area, you may also consider obtaining a COVID test around February 10, so that, if you test positive, you can complete any necessary isolation and recovery before your return to campus.
Pre-Arrival Testing
All campus community members and students are getting tested before we start the term. Arriving students must bring documentation of a negative PCR (not antigen) COVID test taken within 72 hours of their arrival on campus. Specific instructions are available at https://www.hotchkiss.org/covid-19, including the new requirements for anyone arriving from outside the USA.
If you have been diagnosed with COVID-19 at any point, please contact Ms. Danielle Shippey ([email protected]) in the Health Center.
Arrival Quarantine and Testing
Once students are cleared to move into their dorms on their arrival day, we will enter an arrival quarantine period during which we will conduct multiple rounds of testing, conduct classes remotely, and do activities and meals in pods. We anticipate that we will be able to emerge from quarantine after 10 days, but it will depend on the levels of infection that we see on campus. As students, you have real agency in this: your full participation in the Safe Transition period, and your encouragement of your peers to do the same, will help ensure that quarantine is as short as possible.
Why is all this necessary? It stems mainly from the fact that the virus can take up to two weeks to incubate, and may not show up on a test until the 14th day after exposure. Some of our peer schools this January have seen students test positive after multiple rounds of negative tests, in some cases having to send dozens of students home to quarantine. We are fully prepared for the possibility of students' testing positive after their arrival on campus, and our goal is to take good care of any infected students while preventing any spread or close contacts. There is much more research on this now, so we know better how we can maximize protection to the community and keep quarantine time as short as possible.
We will be communicating more as we get closer to arrival time, so be sure to check your email a few times a week. Again, we are so looking forward to having students back on campus--you really make this place what it is.
Be strong, be kind, be well,
Richard H. Davis Jr.
COVID Coordinator
Associate Dean of Faculty
