The George, George Brown College’s (GBC) student residence, says it is officially COVID-19 free after four positive cases among student residents were confirmed in November.

“We had between nine or ten people self-isolating, not all of which had tested positive but were all in close contact,” says Erica Fearnall, general manager of Campus Living Centres at GBC.

It is not known how the first case occurred on November 15. But Fearnall, whose team worked alongside Toronto Public Health, says the response to the outbreak was collaborative.

“We, as a residence team, coordinated with tons of members of the college to really make sure that we did consider student support from all angles, and respond to anyone who had additional needs or concerns.”

According to Fearnall, some students also reached out because the situation restricted their ability to go on campus while the college was trying to determine how far the outbreak had spread. The team was able to negotiate these terms and request additional academic support by communicating with the students’ academic faculties.

Students in self-isolation were temporarily prohibited from leaving their suites, with residence coordinators managing everything from temperature checks to delivering groceries, toilet paper, and garbage bags to the students.

“When you’re in self-isolation, you cannot leave your suite. Everything that happens between the front door to the suite door, the residence staff takes care of. We checked in with them daily and coordinated whatever they needed,” says Fearnall.

Once the students tested negative and were cleared by Toronto Public Health, they reported to GBC’s COVID-19 response team to receive additional clearance. After being cleared from self-isolation, they were then permitted to leave their suites and be integrated back into the residence community.

As for the response from other students in the building, Xueqiong Cheng, a student living at the George, says one of her friends moved back home because of concerns about contracting the virus.

“We had a COVID-19 screen check in the front desk since the first confirmed case happened. They sanitized the whole floor of the confirmed cases. I talked about this with a few friends that I made in the residence. One of them moved back home because of the concern about COVID-19.”

Fearnall says the students also reached out to her regarding the boundaries of the infected student’s self-isolation processes and whether or not air circulated from room to room throughout the building.

The George staff says it continues to follow a strict protocol of social distancing measures. Guest privileges have been removed since the beginning of the semester, and students may visit home for the holiday break, with the understanding that they cannot return back to the residence for this duration of time.

“Over the holidays, we are asking students to tell us if they are in or if they’re out. Students wanting to head home to be with their families for the holidays, they’ll be heading home, but then they will be locked out of the residence unless given access for the holiday break.”

For more information about COVID-19 updates, visit GBC’s COVID-19 updates.