UPDATE: Leo Hall Floor Released From Quarantine

This story has been updated with breaking news.

A positive COVID-19 test result placed the residents on the fifth floor of the freshman dorm, Leo Hall, into a temporary quarantine Monday afternoon. As of 11 a.m. on Tuesday, the quarantine had been lifted after the students tested negative for COVID-19.

The Marist College student body was notified Aug. 31 that a student tested positive for COVID-19. The student resides on the fifth floor of Leo Hall, the second largest freshman dorm. Marist’s contact tracing team has already notified students who could have come into contact with the individual and those students are being tested. 

According to an email from Sarah English, Director of Housing and Residential Life, the student who tested positive already left campus and will remain in a quarantine off campus until cleared by Health Services. 

According to the email sent to the Marist student body, the quarantine’s length for the students in Leo Hall remains undetermined: “While we cannot provide an exact timeframe for the quarantine, we are working with MidHudson Regional Hospital, our medical partner, to expedite the results. We hope to have answers by tomorrow.” 

Marist restated to students that their aim is to be transparent and keep the community updated to ensure the safety of students and faculty. “We know it is likely that we will continue to have positive cases. The College updates these metrics through the online dashboard.”  

Currently, 5,101 students have been tested, in which 4,926 of those tests were the mandatory pre-arrival tests to be allowed on campus. The rate for students testing positive with COVID-19 is .75 percent. 

Working with the Dutchess County Department of Behavioral and Community Healthy and New York State, Marist is continuously measuring a variety of indicators to prevent a campus outbreak. Marist states on their COVID-19 Dashboard these measures include monitoring the number of cases among students, quarantine capacity on campus, and local factors dependent on the Dutchess County Department of Behavioral and Community Health and New York State.