After reporting just one COVID-19 infection during the fall quarter, Antioch College now has seven active cases on campus.
Six students and one staff member tested positive for the virus over several days late last week, according to college spokesperson Christine Reedy.
Fewer than 20 students are currently living on campus during the college’s November–December block term, Reedy said. That means the outbreak involves around one-third of students presently in residence at Antioch.
One student tested positive on Thursday, another four students on Friday, and the college was informed on Sunday that one additional student and one staff employee had also tested positive for COVID-19, Reedy wrote in a series of emails to the News. The students are isolating on campus, with no other members of the campus community in quarantine for potential exposures.
Three local businesses are closing for the winter during what their owners expect to be a grim few months of the pandemic. Whether other seasonal closures will follow in Yellow Springs remains to be seen.
Peach’s Grill closed in mid-November after a kitchen worker tested positive for the virus, while Ye Olde Trail Tavern followed suit this Monday, though no positive cases have been reported there. And Import House on Dayton Street closed last Friday, following a confirmed case that morning. All three businesses are owned by villagers Don Beard and Christine Monroe-Beard.
“Things are going to go south real quick,” Beard said in a recent phone call, reflecting on the rapid spread of COVID-19 in Greene County and Ohio.