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MORGANTOWN -- West Virginia University is taking steps to ensure every student still living on campus is safe and healthy after the Monongalia County Health Department notified the school that a student in one of its residential halls tested positive for COVID-19.
"That student has been isolated from others," said university Dean of Students Corey Farris, who learned of the diagnosis Sunday. "Our cleaning crew is doing a deep clean of the area very thoroughly and taking care of all surfaces that the student may have come in contact with.
"Students in that particular residential hall complex were to be tested (Monday) as well as employees in contact with that person. All of the people being tested need to self-quarantine until their tests come back.
"If they come back positive, they will be given one set of guidelines to quarantine. If they come back negative, it will be a different set of guidelines to wear gloves and a mask. The stay at home kind of thing will re-apply."
At this time, there are a total of 25 students living in the two on-campus residential halls remaining open to house those students -- Evansdale Residential Complex and Oakland Hall.
"We've kept two buildings open to house students who could not leave campus," Farris said. "We have 25 total students staying on campus across the complexes who are either international students who can't go home because their borders are closed, or domestic students whose parents are posted abroad in the military and couldn't leave or students with an unsafe place to go, so we have made an exception to house them.
"They are all staying in private rooms and we are providing food for them inside the resident halls, so we are still honoring their meal plans and they don't have to leave the resident hall. We have one dining hall open for to-go food and take with them."
While residential halls are limited to one person per room, students living in apartments do not have those restrictions but still need to take precaution for everyone's safety.
The university announced last Wednesday that a dozen students had tested positive for COVID-19, although it is believed those students returned to private, off-campus residences upon returning to Morgantown. The school has been closed since March 20, and there is no indication those students were on campus.
"Apartments are treated as private apartments," Farris said. "They don't have the restrictions that resident halls do. They are set up differently but they need to continue to abide by the governor's orders. We advise students to stay away but we have some students in nursing school who are helping with this."
Along with the measures taken by West Virginia University, students must continue to take social distancing very seriously.
"Our bathrooms are being cleaned regularly and we have plenty of hand sanitizer for the students staying here," he said.
"We are communicating with people to help them understand the importance of social distancing. The spread of this is because of coming in contact with someone in the community who is positive. Community spread is dangerous because it's my path crossing your path. You could be in line at the grocery store and you cough, that's been one of the biggest challenges. It's not business as usual. You have to follow the guidelines to go out for food or medical necessities and not go to someone's house for dinner or play organized sports."
As Farris and other university workers work to make sure every student on campus remains safe, he also wanted to give credit to all others working bravely and tirelessly around the clock during the pandemic.
"In a broader sense, I'm appreciative of health care workers and first responders," Farris said. "Hopefully, people will continue to social distance themselves and cover up to minimize the chances of developing the virus and stop the spread."