Marist College is holding classes remotely, suspending activities, barring visitors and keeping students on its Hudson River campus through Tuesday after an off-campus gathering resulted in multiple cases of COVID-19.
Marist announced the initial lockdown Thursday after learning of COVID-19 cases stemming from a weekend off-campus gathering held without masks or social distancing. The college, which did not specify the number of positive cases, extended the restrictions for a few more days on Sunday.
The college of more than 6,000 students said it was conducting multiple rounds of targeted COVID-19 student testing and had instituted “a precautionary temporary quarantine” at its Fulton Townhouses.
“While our success in managing this situation in the first six weeks of the semester is a testament to our work together, this recent turn of events serves as a critical reminder: COVID-19 is still a threat to the campus and the larger community, and must be taken seriously,” college administrators said in a web post.
A growing number of colleges have switched to remote classes or tightened rules in recent weeks to try to slow the spread of the virus. In nearby New Rochelle in Westchester County, Iona College said it was moving classes online for two weeks starting Monday after identifying 58 cases. The 4,000-student Catholic college said in an online posting that the uptick was among some athletic teams and that the virus was transmitted through a “single, isolated event.”
