Image of the food provided to William Mimy while in quarantine. Photo/William Mimy.
The University of North Carolina at Pembroke has developed a plan for its COVID-19 positive students. Students who test positive for the virus are required to quarantine for two weeks. Dozens of students, including freshman William Mimy, attended a party where masks were not worn and social distancing was either limited or nonexistent. Afterward, Mimy tested positive for COVID-19, landing him two weeks in quarantine.
“It was like a prison,” Mimy stated. “There was a certain time when you got your food, and you stayed locked in your little space.”
Quarantined students are sent to Village Apartments, located across from Cypress Hall, where they are to spend their two weeks. Quarantine food services at various universities have recently faced scrutiny. Revealing that some students’ dietary restrictions were ignored, some did not get food until late in the day while others were just fed snack foods. Describing what Pembroke’s quarantine food service was like, Mimy stated “Our food was just dining hall food but packaged. We were fed once a day at noon where we got all of our meals.”
Once a student tests positive for COVID-19, Student Health Services and Robeson County Health Department begins tracing to figure out who the student has been in contact with and who might have contracted COVID-19. Freshman Whitney Peck also attended the party and contracted COVID-19. “If I’m going to be sick, I want to be around my family,” said Peck.
Rather than being quarantined on campus, she decided to go home. “I wanted to be where I could be taken care of.”
With the number of on-campus cases slowly decreasing, Chancellor Cummings stated in a video on social media that our current percentage of quarantine capacity was at 8.5% with 27 active cases as of Friday, Sep. 18. Students who are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms should contact Student Health Services.
