Georgetown University’s Hotel and Conference Center has become crowded with students needing to quarantine after the campus community experienced a spike in positive COVID-19 cases.
After 35 community members tested positive for COVID-19 between Oct. 26 and 28, Georgetown mandated all students be tested. During the week of Oct. 24, the university reported 69 positive COVID-19 cases. The rise in COVID-19 cases has prompted student questions over what the quarantine and isolation process looks like on campus, what the university requires of students who have tested positive and what other students have experienced while isolating. Get the answers to the most common questions below:
What happens when a student tests positive for COVID-19?
When a student receives a positive COVID-19 test, they will receive a call from Georgetown University notifying them of their test results. The GU Care Navigator Team will also send a message to the student with a timeline for their isolation.
Students who test positive will be required to isolate for 10 days, starting either the day they tested positive or when they first noticed COVID-19 symptoms, according to a message sent by the COVID-19 Care Navigator Team obtained by The Hoya.
“People who have tested positive or are sick with COVID-19 should self-isolate for at least 10 days, starting either the day they took the positive test (if they remain asymptomatic), or the day their symptoms started,” the message reads.
If students cannot isolate in their on-campus or off-campus housing, they will be transferred to the hotel by university staff within a few hours.
What is the process for students quarantining on campus?
Once a student arrives at the hotel, they are given a one-time access key to their room, where they isolate for the following 10 days, according to the university’s Quarantine & Isolation webpage.
Around 9 a.m. each day, the university drops off food for the entire day in front of each student’s door, including breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. The meals are mostly microwavable, and students are able to request additional food items if necessary, including coffee, granola bars, desserts and juices. A minifridge filled with water and some nonperishable drinks and snacks is also provided in each room.
Each day, students in isolation must fill out a survey provided by the university to record their symptoms. At the end of the 10 days in isolation, or 10 days after the date of the positive test, students are released from quarantine and may return to campus.
Can students get retested once they are in quarantine to account for false positive test results?
Georgetown University, along with the CDC and the Washington, D.C. Department of Health, mandates that anyone who has a positive PCR test must complete 10 days of isolation, regardless of the result of any COVID-19 test they receive after.
“Receiving different PCR test results on consecutive days can happen for different reasons and usually has to do with where you are in the infection cycle,” the university’s COVID-19 FAQs webpage reads. “PCR tests’ accuracy often depends on when someone is tested––early in the infection cycle or later in the infection cycle, the viral particles may be lower or even undetected.”
Can students quarantine elsewhere?
The university suggests that if students are able to do so, they should isolate in their own dormitory or off-campus residence to ensure there are enough hotel rooms open for future positive tests. However, if this is not possible, the university will provide students a hotel room to isolate.
University staff will provide food and other essential items for students isolating in their on-campus residence; however, staff will be unable to bring food to students isolating off-campus.
