May 12, 2021 – COVID Outbreak Update

Dear Members of the Whitman Community,

I’m following up on an email I sent on Monday regarding a string of COVID-19 cases detected in students. In the past week we’ve had confirmation of at least two large gatherings of students off campus. So far, four students who attended one of those gatherings tested positive for COVID-19.

We have spent much of this week implementing our isolation, quarantine and testing protocols to address the positive test results (one from Thursday, one from Sunday, and two from Monday). We have not detected any more positives since my email on Monday. In addition, our first batch of surveillance testing results for this week have not indicated any additional spread. That is very good news, but we are not out of the woods yet. We are waiting on results of Tuesday’s surveillance testing and given what we know about the timeline of the student gatherings and the incubation period of COVID-19, we still could see positive cases in the coming days.

The group of positive cases over the last week could have been avoided. Right now, student behavior is putting all of our end-of-semester activities at risk, including students’ ability to complete their work and seniors’ ability to walk with their class at commencement.

Now is not the time to stop being vigilant about our COVID safety precautions. I would hate for the actions of a few students to affect the entire campus community and do not want to have to put further restrictions in place in these last few days of the academic year. I cannot stress enough the importance of the following:

-- Keeping gatherings to groups of 15 people or less outdoors and five or less indoors with masks and 6 ft. of distance.

-- Wearing your masks in all public indoor and outdoor spaces unless alone in a residence hall room or office space.

-- Maintaining at least 6 ft. of distance between yourself and others, even in outdoor spaces.

-- Keeping residence hall visitors to one per room, and out of public spaces. Visitors from off-campus are not allowed.

I encourage all students to continue to pay close attention to your health and monitor yourself for symptoms. If you think you may be sick, do not travel home or to your summer destination. Instead, reach out to the Welty Health Center (509-527-5281) for next steps.

I also want to thank the staff involved in COVID response for the hours and efforts they have put into trying to contain the spread this week.

Best,
Peter Harvey
Coronavirus Task Force Chair