USCB’s entire women’s soccer team in quarantine after 9 COVID cases reported on campus
All 26 members of University of South Carolina Beaufort’s women’s soccer team are in quarantine after two team members and seven other students reported testing positive for COVID-19 last week, university officials said Monday.
The university, which began in-person and remote classes Thursday, required that all residential students be tested for coronavirus during their move-in process.
Due to HIPAA privacy laws, the university cannot review students’ COVID-19 test results. USCB has mandated that students self-report if their test is positive, according to spokeswoman Carol Weir.
Of the 757 students who were tested between Saturday and Wednesday, eight students reported positive results to the university. One of those students is on the women’s soccer team.
“Everybody is doing fine, health-wise,” Weir said. She added that the wellness checker logs for the students indicate one is asymptomatic, while one reported fatigue and one reported losing their sense of taste and smell.
Athletic Director Quin Monahan announced a second positive test on the women’s soccer team Monday evening.
“Only one of the athletes in isolation has exhibited symptoms, which, as of today, have diminished significantly,” Monahan said. “All other members of the soccer team are completely asymptomatic.”
Of the eight students who were reported Monday morning, five returned home to isolate, while three are isolating in university apartments separate from other residential housing, according to Weir. Two of the three students in university housing are on the Bluffton campus, while the other is in Beaufort.
Students will be isolated for 10 days past their test date, or “longer if needed,” said Kimberly Dudas, dean of the university’s School of Professions.
“Then they will be released when at least 10 days have passed, their symptoms are improving and they have been fever free for 24 hours without medication,” Dudas said. “Those in quarantine, who are students who have had close contact with anyone who tested positive, will remain in quarantine for 14 days.”
Thirty-one students, 26 of which are on the women’s soccer team, are quarantining out of an abundance of caution due to close contact with an individual who tested positive.
The majority of the team is quarantining in apartments members share with one another, while those with non-soccer roommates were moved to isolation apartments.
The team’s season begins in a Sept. 11 scrimmage, and its first game is a Sept. 14 matchup with Middle Georgia State.
Per guidelines from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, which governs USCB’s sports, every team member will be tested for COVID-19 prior to their first game. Those who test positive must receive a negative test before returning to competition.
Monahan said he anticipates testing the women’s soccer team seven to 10 days in advance of the Sept. 11 scrimmage.
The university has 773 residential students in Bluffton and 94 in Beaufort. Of those students, 757 were tested by Beaufort Memorial Hospital between Monday and Wednesday. Ten students provided proof of a positive test for COVID-19 or COVID-19 antibodies from 14 or more days prior to their move-in.
As of Monday morning, Weir said, “most” of the testing results from those 757 students are in.
The remaining 100 residents were to be tested within 48 hours of their arrival on campus.
Provost Eric Skipper previously told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette that approximately 1,200 of the school’s 2,000 students will receive some form of in-person instruction during the fall semester; around 800 have opted for fully online learning.
This story was originally published August 24, 2020 at 2:44 PM.