About 80 Syracuse University students who live on the eighth floor of Day Hall are free to return to their daily lives. They were placed under a precautionary quarantine Sunday after three dorm residents on their floor tested positive for COVID-19.

What You Need To Know

  • Three Syracuse University students who live on the eighth floor of Day Hall tested positive for COVID-19

  • The near 80 other students on that floor were placed under precautionary quarantine Sunday, but were released Monday after their tests came back negative

  • University leaders are urging the roughly 540 other students who call that dorm home to get tested

“It’s amazing how resilient and how they just acknowledge, like it’s nothing, ‘OK this is what it takes to go to college in the time of COVID,' ” said Michael Haynie, the University’s vice chancellor for Strategic Initiatives and Innovation.

All the students on the eighth floor underwent testing after the positive cases were discovered.

Haynie says those tests came back negative.

“That chain of transmission is clear to the county, and that’s a good thing,” said Haynie. “Where the public health folks get nervous is when we have a positive case, and we can’t trace the chain of transmission.”

Testing was also made available on Monday to the students living on the other floors of Day Hall.

The dorm is home to 540 students. Haynie says many students have taken advantage of the testing so far.

“What we’re trying to do here is hard, and I think everybody recognizes what we’re trying to do is hard, and it imposes a unique burden on our students,” said Haynie. “I think across the board, with a misstep here in there, our students have been remarkable throughout this process.”  

The university currently has 33 active cases and 105 students in quarantine.

Haynie credits the low number to their surveillance system and students following the protocols.