Assumption locking down campus amid coronavirus outbreak

Photo | Courtesy | Assumption University Assumption University in Worcester

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By Grant Welker

Assumption University will lock down its campus for a week starting Friday, and ask students to shelter in place amid a coronavirus outbreak that already led to more than one in five residential students having to quarantine or isolate themselves out of precaution.

Francesco Cesareo, the president of the Worcester school, said in an email to the campus community Thursday that the lockdown, effective at 8 a.m. Friday, was necessary to mitigate the spread both on and off campus. All faculty and staff, except for essential personnel, will teach remotely while the lockdown is in place, and all commuter students will take clases remotely through the end of the semester, he said.

Assumption will reassess, in consultation with Worcester health officials, whether to allow for students and others to move around at the end of the lockdown on Nov. 6, Cesareo said.

Assumption reported no new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, following two on Monday and six on Tuesday. The school says it has conducted more than 27,000 tests this semester.

The shelter-in-place restrictions mean students will not be able to leave their residence hall except to pick up meals at a dining hall or at one of three drop-off locations if food is ordered from off-campus, with each residence hall assigned a time to pick up meals in order to reduce interaction. Students will also be able to leave only for twice-a-week testing or for medical emergencies.

All in-person campus activities are also canceled for at least a week, including athletics.

"I realize the inconvenience that the shelter-in-place will cause students, faculty and staff," Cesareo said, "however this mutual decision by the Worcester Department of Public Health and the University is a necessary step to promote the health and safety of the campus and Worcester communities."