University of Waterloo readies for COVID-19 to reach student residences

The university says students living on-campus will be able to isolate or quarantine in their rooms if they contract the coronavirus

The University of Waterloo says it is ready to support sick students living on-campus.

The university says students living on-campus are already set up in single rooms with their own en-suites, but so called 'isolation suites' are also available.

U-W Associate Vice-President for Communications, Nick Manning tells 570 NEWS it is possible for students to isolate or quarantine in their rooms.

"As you might expect, we've completely re-imagined our student experience in residence community to make sure that students are feeling safe and supported," Manning said. "Of course we know that there are going to be cases where students may test positive and so, as you would expect, we have quarantine plans, we have isolation plans to make sure students who are living on our campus can self-isolate if they need to."

Manning says if that's the case, the university would also be there to make sure the student has the supports needed to isolate safely.

This comes after five Western University students tested positive for COVID-19 in London late last week with the local health unit there saying it expects to see that number grow in the coming days.

McMaster University has also made the decision to keep its classes online for the Winter term with some exceptions.

Manning, meantime, says everyone on campus is also supposed to be checking-in for contact tracing purposes.

"If you're connecting to our Wi-Fi at the university then you're in our check-in system and we know where you are, we know who you've been close to, and if we need to, we can take steps to notify."

He says the idea is to make it as effortless as possible because students, like everyone else in the general public are susceptable to some COVID-complacency.

"Lots of people are struggling now to maintain the discipline needed to keep this virus at bay and that's happening too but we're really doubling down on our efforts to reinforce the need to maintain those big three, the hands, face and space."