COVID-19 testing update

Dear Members of the Skidmore Community,   

I write to inform you that, through our testing and quarantine process for students returning to campus and employees working on campus, we have identified two confirmed COVID-19 cases and one presumptive positive case among students. In accordance with New York state regulations, Saratoga County Public Health Services has been alerted. We are collaborating with them to immediately implement contact tracing and safety protocols. The students are in isolation and receiving appropriate care and support, and we send them our best wishes for a speedy recovery.

As a reminder, if you have a potential exposure to COVID-19 that would require quarantine, you may be contacted initially by Skidmore in advance of being contacted by Saratoga County Public Health. If you are contacted either by Skidmore or by Saratoga County Public Health, your timely and complete cooperation is essential as we seek to contain infections as quickly as possible.

We provide this update to you out of an abundance of caution and in keeping with our commitment to ongoing and transparent communication.

While we anticipated that we would likely identify individuals who tested positive in our initial round of testing, this is still difficult news to share. It is crucial that we resist the stigmas, inequities, xenophobia and stereotypes associated with this illness while continuing our collective vigilance against the virus.

In accordance with federal laws related to health information, Skidmore College will not publicly identify individuals’ testing results or information that could identify specific individuals. We ask all members of our community to respect the privacy of individuals affected by COVID-19 so they can focus on their health. In addition, Skidmore is committed to providing medical, psychological and academic support for any students who test positive.

Updates about future positive cases will be posted to this webpage, which features aggregate data related to COVID-19 testing, infection rates and alert levels. The dashboard will be updated daily, or as often as new information is available, and will be shared regularly with students, families and the campus community.

For additional information about Skidmore’s Health and Safety procedures, please visit Health and Safety FAQs.

Students who experience symptoms of COVID-19 should self-isolate and contact Health Services. Employees should contact their primary health care provider. Do not go to the surveillance testing tent. To minimize infection risk, Health Services will be screening students prior to appointments and will triage visits according to clinical symptoms, needs and urgency. For more information, visit the Health Services webpage.

With the majority of students having returned to campus and Saratoga Springs, it is more crucial than ever that we all abide by social distancing protocols, wear masks at all times while in public and exercise our best judgement — to protect ourselves and others. Please remember that a negative test is a snapshot in time, not a prediction or guarantee for the future.

As President Conner shared in his recent communications, each of us must embrace our responsibility to the health and safety of the entire community as we move forward into the fall semester.

Sincerely,
Dean Banks