A University of Southern Maine student has tested positive for the coronavirus as part of the university’s asymptomatic testing program for students returning to classes.
The out-of-state student is living off-campus in Maine and is currently in isolation at home, USM President Glenn Cummings said in a message to the community Thursday.
The case marks the seventh COVID-19 case among students in the University of Maine System and the first at the University of Southern Maine, which began welcoming students back to campus Tuesday. Classes start Monday.
More than 2,300 COVID-19 tests have been administered across the system as part of a plan to test all out-of-state and residential students as well as select groups such as athletes and students participating in off-campus clinicals before the start of classes. Another round of testing will be conducted following the start of classes and the system will subsequently test random groups of around 2,000 faculty, staff and students throughout the semester.
The student who tested positive on USM’s Gorham campus is not taking any on-campus classes this fall and was only on campus for the testing. Contact tracing is underway and the Maine CDC has determined that no quarantining of USM students, faculty or staff is required at this time, Cummings said in his message.
Cummings said earlier this week that the university is expecting to find some positive COVID-19 cases through its testing program, and he reiterated that message Thursday.
“We actually want to find positive cases,” he said. “That’s why we’re screening. While it may seem counter-intuitive, there’s great value in identifying people who are positive so we can then take measures to keep the virus from spreading within the USM community.”
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