RIT now under Yellow Alert

At 6:47 AM on October 9, 2020, the Rochester Institute of Technology announced that the Rochester campus would be under a Yellow Alert due to a slight uptick in Coronavirus cases.

"This serves as a reminder that anyone traveling must follow all health and safety measures," Wendy Gelbard, the associate vice president of wellness and student affairs, explained on the RIT website. "We strongly recommend that students, faculty, and staff do not travel outside the Finger Lakes Region unless absolutely necessary."

The university has been tracking some connected cases stemming from a student who has traveled outside of the Finger Lakes region and later tested positive. The students who have tested positive are now under isolation while their close contacts have been put under quarantine.

"This means the prevalence of virus remains low, but indicators show potential for an increase in transmission," Gelbard explained. "Because of this change, we will limit non-instructional indoor gatherings to 25 people and implement targeted testing."

Some of the students being targeted for testing currently reside in Greek housing and portions of the Riverknoll apartments. They will be tested later that day following wastewater surveillance that detected a possible presence of the virus in those two residencies.

"The actions we are taking may seem strong, but we cannot let our guard down, Gelbard explained. "In fact, these recent positive cases are the very first cases of known transmission from one RIT community member to another."

If prevalence of the virus increases above the baseline, the university may implement an orange alert which limits all non-instructional gatherings to ten people and prohibits visitors from appearing on-campus. Research activities would be limited and staff would be reduced to just essential workers.