Merrimack College Covid Report- Erwin Kamuene

Covid-19 has shaken the foundation of higher education to its core. Regardless of the intense precautions that many schools and universities have put in place to stifle the spread of the disease, it seemingly always finds a way to slither through the inevitable cracks and further wreak havoc on the plans and futures of many eagerly awaiting students. Because of this, the last few months have been marked by an overwhelming sense of uncertainty and anxiety building up and emanating from every school and university occupying the valley, especially that of Merrimack College.

When the year began at Merrimack, all students and faculty either living on, or regularly commuting to and from the campus, were required to sign an acknowledgment of risk form, as well as complete a symptoms check when coming in. Things stayed relatively calm and silent until mid September when a great swell of cases suddenly arose. According to nbcboston.com, as many as nearly four dozen cases were reported in one residence hall, prompting administration to slow the procession of the trimester, as they attempted to mitigate the spread.

As nbcboston.com reports, testing around 3800 members of the community revealed that the cases did not extend beyond the residence hall where the cases originated. This shined an optimistic light on the future of the virus’s containment as well as also leading the school to imposing stricter precautions, such as regular testing for all who were not already testing regularly.

Those living on campus were encouraged by administration to stay on campus, to decrease any risk of outside exposure and from those still living on campus, and according to the school, there’s an agreed understanding of the risks taken on behalf of the students till living on the campus. So far the school still remains open, and classes are still routinely being held, but this calming of the storm has done little to ease the pervading tension plaguing North Andover. And as the year goes on, unfortunately seems to be a pattern, we’ll have to learn to get used to it.

More information can be found on the Merrimack College website.