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Syracuse University will only adjust its quarantine and isolation policies if the New York State Department of Health revises its policy, Vice Chancellor Mike Haynie said Thursday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its quarantine requirement on Wednesday for individuals who are exposed to COVID-19. The CDC’s updated guidance reduces the 14-day quarantine requirement to seven days with proof of a negative test or 10 days without a negative test, as long as the individual does not show symptoms.

SU’s current policy requires that students who contract the virus isolate for 10 days and that students who come in close contact with infected individuals quarantine for 14 days.

“Syracuse University is obligated to adopt and enact the New York State Department of Health directives related to both quarantine and isolation requirements,” Haynie said in a campus-wide email.

Haynie also thanked students for cooperating throughout the move-out process. Students complied with departure testing requirements and left residence halls in “great condition” for the return to campus in the spring, he said.

SU will also continue to require masks at all times while on campus, regardless of whether an individual has recovered from the virus. The university will enforce this policy “for the foreseeable future,” he said.

“There is still much to be learned about the transmission of COVID-19 before, during and after infection,” Haynie said. “The only certainty is the efficacy of masks in the prevention of transmission of the virus.”

 

Published on December 3, 2020 at 5:44 pm

Contact Mira: mlberenb@syr.edu