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Landmark College Update on COVID-19 Testing of Students, Faculty, and Staff (August 26, 2020)

As Landmark College prepares for the fall semester, the College’s leadership team wants to keep our fellow members of the Putney community and neighboring towns apprised of our approach to offering residential and online programs to our students. This includes health and safety protocols related to preventing spread of the novel coronavirus.

Students who arrived August 14-16 received a “day zero test,” with all students testing negative. Those students maintained the required campus quarantine for seven days per State of Vermont guidelines. These students then received a seven-day follow-up test between August 21-23. One of those students tested positive and was immediately placed in isolation.

The Vermont Department of Health was called in to conduct contact tracing. They identified an additional eight students and one staff member who had close contact with the student. These individuals have been placed in contact quarantine and will be tested again in seven days.

To date, the College has tested approximately 200 students, faculty and staff members. Another 200 students are expected to arrive August 27-29. These students have been able to quarantine at home immediately prior to traveling to Vermont, or are from areas that do not require a quarantine by the Vermont Department of Health and are traveling directly to campus in private vehicles. They will also be tested on the day they arrive and again seven days later.

At the end of their travel quarantine periods, students will be able to travel within Windham County, Vermont and other local areas as determined by the College and using Vermont’s cross-state travel guidance. Any time students are off campus, they are required to observe physical distancing guidelines and wear a face covering regardless of local regulations.

Members of the campus leadership team meet weekly with the presidents of other independent Vermont colleges. The Health Services staff meets weekly with the Vermont Department of Health and college health services and leadership teams.

All remaining members of the faculty and staff who will be on campus this semester will be tested before classes begin on August 31. In addition, all Landmark College community members are required to self-monitor for symptoms daily, self-isolate if they exhibit symptoms of COVID-19 or are exposed to another individual who tests positive for COVID-19, and comply with all protocols for testing, face-covering, hand-washing, and physical distancing.

A COVID-19 Reporting Dashboard will be available on the landmark.edu website soon. Questions about Landmark College policies and protocols related to COVID-19 testing and management should be directed to publichealth@landmark.edu.