COVID-19 Update: Merrimack College Edition

We will regularly update this page with information about Covid-19 as it relates to Merrimack College.

May 4, 2021

• The number of positive cases declined this week with only 8 out of 6,445 tests.
• Merrimack is currently vaccinating students, faculty, and staff with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the Sakowich Campus Center.
• Merrimack has not yet announced whether it will require students to be vaccinated in the fall. Almost 200 colleges and universities across the country say they will require vaccinations.

April 27, 2021

• Merrimack College reported 28 positive tests out of 7,664 tests performed over the last week. This is a bit higher than the previous week, but low enough for the campus positivity rate to remain well below 1 percent.
• Massachusetts’ positivity rate is the lowest it’s been in 6 months at 1.74 over the last 7 days.
• In other good news, Massachusetts has the lowest “vaccine hesitancy” rate in the country (meaning that as a state we are more likely to get vaccinated against Covid-19). 53 percent of people in Massachusetts have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 30 percent of people are fully vaccinated.

April 21, 2021

• The number of positive cases on campus remains steady at 19 out of 10,416 tests performed.
• Merrimack College will reduce testing for students and campus members to three days a week rather than daily testing.
• Everyone 16 and older is now eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine in the state of Massachusetts. The Beacon and MCTV encourage you to get vaccinated!

April 14, 2021

• Merrimack almost doubled its total number of text over the last week as everyone is being tested every day they are on campus. There were 23 positive cases out of nearly 12,000 tests.
• Daily testing will allow Merrimack College to quickly identify cases to prevent spreading, which is more necessary than ever as more infectious variants are now common in the state.

April 6, 2021

• Merrimack College reported an uptick of positive cases with 21 out 6,163 tests.
• Out of concern over rising cases in the state and an uptick in positive cases on campus, Merrimack College is requiring everyone on campus to get tested every day they are on campus.
• From college communications: “all members of the Merrimack Community who come to campus should get tested every day they are on the campus. For most of our community this will mean getting tested each day this week – 5 tests. If you are not on campus 5 days a week, please test the days you are on campus.”
• The testing center has extended its hours and will be open until 7 p.m. for the week. For the additional testing, please visit the testing center at any time from Monday-Friday 7 a.m.- 7 p.m. or Saturday from 9 a.m.- 1 p.m. 
• Campus members who are partially or fully vaccinated must still be tested every day they are on campus.

March 31, 2021

• Merrimack College again remains consistent this week with 15 positive cases out of 6,066 total tests.
• The state of Massachusetts is seeing a rise in cases with some public health leaders saying we’re in the beginning of a fourth surge. The U.K. Covid variant, B.1.1.7., is becoming more dominant in the region and it’s more transmissible.
• In good news, the U.S. continues to vaccinate nearly 3,000,000 people a day.
• Everyone in the state of Massachusetts, including college students, will be eligible for the vaccine on April 19.

March 25, 2021

• Merrimack College remains consistent with 12 positive tests out of 6,285 tests. The previous four-week positive test numbers were 13, 16, 20, and 7.
• Overall, Merrimack College’s positivity rate is well below the state’s at .191% compared to 2%. Although the number of cases and positivity rate in Massachusetts is also remaining steady.
• Some good news: 16% of Massachusetts residents are now fully vaccinated, and 30% of Massachusetts residents have received at least one dose of either of the two-dose vaccines. Most of New England reports similar rates of vaccinating residents.

March 18, 2021

• The number of positive cases per week at Merrimack College remains consistent at 13 out of 6,217 tests. This means that the positivity rate also remains well below 1% at 0.209%.

March 11, 2021

• Merrimack College reported 16 positive tests between March 1 and 7. The positivity rate remains well below the Massachusetts state average at only 0.250%.
• Merrimack College has now performed over 100,000 Covid tests during this academic year!

March 2, 2021

• Merrimack College had a bit of an uptick in cases over the last week with 20 positive tests out of 6,459 tests.
• Several of the positive cases are connected to Ash Centre, but the threat of a larger outbreak was effectively contained through testing and temporary quarantining.
• Massachusetts’ overall positivity rate remains below 2 percent. As a result, the state is moving into Phase 3-Step 2 of its reopening plan, which relaxes restrictions for restaurant capacities and live performance venues.

February 24, 2021

• Merrimack College reported only 7 positive tests between February 15 and 21 out of 5,849 tests.
• 4 positive tests occurred in Ash Centre. All Ash students are required to get tested today, February 24. Additionally, residents of Ash Centre are currently instructed to remain in their rooms and attend classes virtually until it is clear there is not additional spread in the dorm.

February 17, 2021

• Merrimack College reported only 5 positive tests between February 8 and 21 despite conducting over 6,600 tests.
• Merrimack’s low positivity rate is unique in comparison to some other institutions in the region. The University of Massachusetts Amherst recently reported 450 cases and implemented a lockdown. The University of New Hampshire also has 400 active cases. Although it should be noted that both U-Mass and UNH have significantly larger student populations.

February 11, 2021

• Merrimack College reported 11 positive tests between February 1 and 7 out of 5,506 tests performed.
• All students were required to get tests on Monday, February 8, after an unsanctioned gathering at Royal Crest over the weekend.
• The number of positive cases continues to decline in the United States from its peak on January 8, and health experts hope this will continue as more people get vaccinated.
• Communication from campus administrators this past weekend reminded everyone of something The Beacon believes it’s worth repeating here: “we need to remain diligent and safe not just for ourselves but for the community as a whole.”

February 3, 2021

• Merrimack began widespread student testing again late last week as people moved back into their campus residences.
• The college reported only 17 positive tests out of 3,860 total tests.
• The college positivity rate of .44% is lower than the statewide positivity rate of 3.44%. However, even the state’s positivity rate continues to trend downward from above 8% on January 1, 2021.

November 24, 2020

• Merrimack had an uptick in Covid-19 last week with 53 positive cases connected to campus. This gives the college a 1.055% positivity rate for the week.
• According to college communications, a number of the 53 cases are tied to an “unsanctioned party” in the St. Anne Apartments. The apartment has been closed since Saturday morning.
• The college is concluding the fall semester with a total of 220 positive cases across students, staff, faculty, and vendors.
• The Beacon will be taking a break from reporting on the coronavirus after this post through the first week of the spring semester. Campus will be mostly closed except for essential personnel and a limited number of students.

November 18, 2020

• The number of positive tests at Merrimack College ticked up a bit this week with 13 cases (compared to 8 last week).
• The college still maintains a positivity rate well below 1% at 0.273%.
• The state of Massachusetts has an average positivity rate of 5.2% (when frequent college student testing is excluded from the data) or 3.1% (when all tests conducted in the state are included).
• The Beacon will be taking a break from reporting on the coronavirus next week (Thanksgiving) through winter break. We will resume our reporting during the first week of the spring semester.

November 11, 2020

• Merrimack College reported 8 positive cases between 11/2 and 11/8, which is a 0.161% positivity rate.
• This is well below the state’s current 7-day average positivity rate of 2.27%. The governor of Massachusetts recently announced new safety measures and discussed reopening field hospitals as many fear we are in a second surge that will worsen in coming weeks and months.
• The United States recently passed a grim milestone: 10 million positive cases of Covid-19.
• Students, faculty, and staff should familiarize themselves with the Spring 2021 Handbook. One change for the spring: Merrimack College will move to twice weekly testing.

November 3, 2020

• Merrimack College reported 5 positive tests from 10/27 through 11/1.
• The college will be adjusting its Covid-19 Dashboard next week. The posted an explanation on their website: “In an effort to align the College Dashboard with data reported by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the 7-Day Rolling Total will now be based on results from Monday through Sunday. To transition to this new reporting period for this week only the data presented will be results from Tuesday, October 27 through Sunday, November 1st. The next Dashboard will have a 7-Day Rolling period of Monday, November 2nd through Sunday, November 8th.”

October 28, 2020

• Merrimack College reported 15 positive tests for the week of 10/20 to 10/26.
• Although this is an increase from the previous week’s report, the positivity rate on campus is only .286 percent, which is lower than the states positivity rate of 1.7%

October 23, 2020

• Merrimack College sent The Beacon a statement clarifying the positive cases in O’Brien: “Merrimack College did have a small number of positive cases in O’Brien Hall. Based on the data there was no reason to take any actions such as closing the residential building or any part of the building. Instead, the College had residents of O’Brien Hall limit their activities on campus by staying in O’Brien Hall and test repeatedly over several days. Based on the results of those tests, there were no more positives and students living in O’Brien Hall were able to resume their residential life on campus.”

October 22, 2020

• The Beacon has identified a number of students living in O’Brien who tested positive for Covid-19.
• The college is keeping O’Brien open and students were told these cases are unlike the Monican cluster a few weeks ago.
• Students were told at a dorm meeting with administration that contract tracing information suggests these positive cases are not connected in the same way as Monican and do not indicate an outbreak.
• The college has yet to release official information to campus members as the situation is still unfolding.

Edit 10-23-20 5:00pm: This post has been updated to reflect additional incoming information.

October 22, 2020

• The Beacon has identified a number of students living in O’Brien who recently tested positive for Covid-19.
• At least one student also tested positive in the Townhouses and several others are now isolating.
• The college has not closed O’Brien, but we know several students are temporarily quarantining until they can get tested again. Students living in O’Brien were also instructed to get tested again today.

Edit 10-23-20 5:00pm: This post has been updated to reflect additional incoming information.

October 21, 2020

October 13, 2020

• The college reported 13 positive tests last week, which is about the same as September 29 through October 5.
• The positivity rate for the week is well below 1%.
• North Andover is now considered in the “red” on state maps. However, they asked the state to reconsider that classification because it’s tied to the Merrimack College outbreak and not a sign of spread throughout the community at large.

October 7, 2020

• Many Monican students are returning to campus this week, and in-person instruction resumes again today.
• The outbreak in Monican was contained by the swift action of the college, which quarantined all students after 5 cases were spotted through surveillance testing.
• The outbreak at Merrimack did push North Andover into the “red” in terms of the state of Massachusetts’ case tracking.
• Over the past 8 weeks there have been 110 cases connected to Merrimack. 65 were related to Monican, 21 other residential students, 16 off campus/commuter students, 7 employees & vendors.
• One adjunct faculty member is included in the employee count, although that case happened at the very beginning of the semester and is not be attributed to classroom teaching. To date, the college says there is no evidence of classroom transmission.

September 30, 2020

• Merrimack reported a total of 65 positive tests lack week with a positivity rate of about 1 percent.
• Merrimack performed 1875 more tests last week compared to the previous week.
• The outbreak in Monican still appears to be contained to based on additional testing.

September 28, 2020

• Merrimack College will temporarily convert to remote learning for the entire campus this week (September 28 through October 2). This decision was made to ensure the containment of the Covid-19 outbreak.
• Monican Hall was temporarily closed last week after 5 students initially tested positive for Covid-19. Departure testing revealed that about 60 Monican students are positive for Covid-19.
• Testing last week also found 12 additional “isolated cases.” According to a college email, “Among these cases there are three commuters, one employee and eight residential student positive cases. None of the additional positive cases appear, at this time, to be connected to the Monican cluster, and we continue to aggressively test and watch the Monican impact. Everyone who has tested positive this week is now in isolation and their direct contacts are now in quarantine.”
• Testing will be ramped up this week, but operations, such as food service, will continue as normal.
• In general, students report being “pleased” with Merrimack’s swift response in identifying and containing the outbreak of Covid-19.
• An archive of the campus’ Covid-19 alerts can be found here.

September 16, 2020

• Merrimack College is now monitoring 11 community members, 7 students and 4 vendors/employees. None of the students currently in  isolation or in quarantine are symptomatic.
• At the request of local governments, Merrimack created a public dashboard where it will post data related to COVID-19. The dashboard can be found here.
• The college is increasing “testing protocol for approximately 850 residential and commuter students to a twice a week testing for the next few weeks,” the administration said in a recent email to some campus members.
• The testing compliance rate remains high at 96.8% last week.

September 8, 2020

• Merrimack has conducted nearly 13,500 tests to date of students, faculty, staff and vendors and the total number of positive tests stands at eight. This means that the cumulative positivity rate is less than 0.06 percent. 
• The testing compliance rate was 98.3 percent last week, which means that the vast majority of campus members are showing up for their scheduled testing times.
• Merrimack College is currently monitoring eleven community members in different stages of their CDC required fourteen-day quarantine. “To date, no community members in isolation or in quarantine are symptomatic,” administrators said in an email to the campus community on September 8.
• In this week’s COVID-19 announcements, the college also reminded everyone of the following campus policies and expectations:
  • No parties (on or off campus)
  • Wear your face covering
  • Social distance (6ft or more)
  • Get COVID-19 tested weekly and don’t miss your scheduled time
  • Monitor your own health and daily self-symptom check
  • Conduct Zoom meetings in place of in-person meetings when possible
  • Wash your hands
  • Be patient and be kind to one another and to the faculty, staff, first responders and student workers who are all working on the frontline to ensure the College opened and remains open

September 4, 2020

• This week the college reported only 4 positive cases of Covid-19 out of about 10,000 tests reported. The extremely low positivity rate at Merrimack College is distinct compared to reports coming from other colleges and universities around the country. According to the college: “In all four positive cases, our contact tracing system quickly moved to ensure each case was isolated off of the campus and those in contact with each positive community member where identified, contacted and quarantined.”
• The college currently boasts a 98.7% testing compliance rate, which means that the vast majority of campus community members are showing up on time to receive their weekly tests.
• Merrimack students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to download the phone application CoVerified in order to check their symptoms everyday.
• Here are some of the Covid-19 Alerts emailed to the campus community so far this semester: