One year after the COVID-19 pandemic, we know that the SARS-CoV-2 virus spreads easily across large indoor gatherings and communal living spaces. An individual can become infected, spread the virus to friends, relatives, teachers, or co-workers, and then begin to show symptoms a few days later—or never show any signs of infection.
With these kinds of dangers, a college campus appears to be one of the most risky places to spend time. In fact, the U.S. counties with major colleges or universities providing in-person training last fall saw a 56 percent increase in COVID-19 cases in the three weeks after classes started relatively to classes started three weeks before. Countries with large schools providing only remote learning have seen a decline in cases of almost 18%, as per the U.S. researchers.
The universities that opened their campuses in August and September were met with an uncharted, months-long experiment in infection control. They didn’t have a manual, no sure-fire way to protect students and staff from getting sick. Each school combined some form of testing at different frequencies, coupled with unequal rules on wearing masks in public meetings.
The original aim was to test all students living in residence halls every other week, says Jake Baggott, Associate Vice-Chancellor and Executive Director of University Health Services. But when the cases spiked in September, the school switched to a weekly exam.
Every day, we sampled every residence hall and every floor of the residence hall,” says Baggott. A phased schedule was set based on living arrangements: if one student had been tested on Monday, the roommate had been tested on Tuesday, the next-door neighbour had been tested on Wednesday, and so on. This stunning impact allowed administrators to classify outbreak sites more rapidly, as new data became available at hyperlocal level on a regular basis.
Students who tested positive were isolated for two weeks, and those suspected to be exposed to an infected person or showing symptoms became quarantine. All non-essential in-person activities for undergraduates were suspended for two weeks, beginning on 7th September last year. On September 20th, 432 students were segregated and 100 were in quarantine.
Rice University also trained over 100 student health ambassadors to act as guides for their peers who had concerns about COVID-19, but do not want to ask their administrators. Case numbers remained low at Rice, with no more than six confirmed cases reported on a single day. Over 75,000 experiments were carried out during the fall semester and only 135 cases were confirmed.
