Quarantined In College: BC Student Describes Isolation After Negative Coronavirus Test
BOSTON (CBS) - It's three meals a day delivered in a bag for Boston College junior Grant Stephano. He's been quarantined in his dorm room for nine days with another week to go, put in lockdown within days of arriving on campus.
He's in an eight person suite which seems like a luxury for a college student. But when one of his roommates contracted Covid-19, six others did as well and were taken off the campus.
Grant has tested negative but must remain isolated as a precaution, and the school year has only begun. "If it was two months into school and I was working on a project for econ class, writing a bunch of papers, studying for tests it would at least be something to do," said Stephano.
But boredom has set in as he can only look out his top floor window. His only breath of fresh air came during a recent fire drill when he had to leave. "We haven't seen the sky in five days that's kind of strange," Grant said. "I can't say there's been any other time in my life when I haven't gone outside in five days."
Boston College has reported a significant jump in cases with 46 undergraduates testing positive and 68 students currently in isolation. Grant says a nurse regularly checks in, friends are helping with needs like laundry, but he misses seeing people.
"It's weird I can hear people below me sometimes, the room next door is a study lounge and I can hear people talking," Grant said. "This is the time of year when you see friends you haven't seen since the summer."
He sits with some zooming and video games, but it's made the return to campus anything but normal.
