COVID-19 cases won't force Cambrian College campus to close, president says

Bill Best, the president of Cambrian College, said Wednesday the school is taking strict precautions against COVID-19 by keeping as many students and faculty off campus as possible. (Alana Everson/CTV News)

Sudbury — Bill Best, the president of Cambrian College, said Wednesday the school is taking strict precautions against COVID-19 by keeping as many students and faculty off campus as possible.

"When you are in campus, the whole time you have to wear a mask," Best said. "We have reduced our density of population by a lot. Normally this time of year we would have 5000 students and 1000 employees on campus, on a given day we only have about 1000 total people on campus."

Best said although 23 people students and staff have reported to the college they have tested positive for COVID-19, the campus will remain open.

"In working with Public Health over the weekend, we were able to determine no transmission has happened on campus, there is no outbreak at the college," said Bill Best.

As Cambrian gets ready to welcome International students next semester, school officials are confident in the safety measures in place.

"Feeling pretty confident just on those couple of examples for the general public to understand that they are going to be continuously tested, they have to do the quarantine, the self isolation that you hear of with all these types of things," Best said. "So they should be entering the community safe from COVID, so they are not going to be bringing COVID with them."

The international students will either quarantine in Toronto or in Sudbury at Laurentian University for 14 days.

In a statement, LU said they are happy to help.

"The reality for us on campus is that we have gone to great lengths to make this a very safe place to quarantine," the statement said.

International students will begin classes at Cambrian in January.

Cambrian College said about 35 per cent of its programs are being offered completely online. Students who require hands-on training are attending the campus, but at staggered times.