Lessons learned fighting the coronavirus this fall will prepare RIT for new challenges in the spring
RIT successfully completed all 13 weeks of in-person instruction this fall without having to suspend or cancel classes due to coronavirus outbreaks. Despite having a large, active campus with students from many countries and all 50 states, RIT had a relatively low rate of infection and avoided major outbreaks.
From Aug. 19 to Nov. 24 (the final day of in-person classes) on the main RIT campus:
• Ninety students tested positive for coronavirus out of a student population of 16,701.
• Twenty employees tested positive out of 3,605.
• The rates of infection for both student and employee populations for were just over .5 percent for the semester.
• RIT never filled more than 46 percent of the beds it had available for quarantine and isolation.
RIT officials said this achievement is partly due to putting the right preventative measures in place, but even more because students, faculty, and staff took the virus seriously and were fully committed to playing their part.