Coast Guard Academy cadets, set to return to campus from spring break, asked to stay home for another 14 days
New London — Cadets at the Coast Guard Academy were supposed to return from spring break this weekend but have been asked to stay home for another 14 days as a precautionary measure due to COVID-19.
Staff and faculty are developing alternative methods of learning to include virtual classrooms, Cmdr. Dave Milne, a spokesman for the academy, said in a statement. The academy will remain open as staff and faculty "work to accomplish our mission of graduating leaders of character," he said.
A small number of cadets had already returned to the campus, Milne said Friday. Some returned home while others are living with host families. The remaining cadets are living on campus — in an area separate from the barracks, which are undergoing a deep cleaning, he said.
All of the cadets are required to fill out a health questionnaire prior to returning to campus, and the clinic on base is determining whether any of them need further screening or isolation. The academy also screened the itineraries of all cadets who traveled internationally over spring break, to ensure they were not in any of the affected countries or had layovers there.
Academy officials are developing different contingency plans in the event that cadets are required to stay home longer than the 14 days. Milne said the academy's message to cadets is to "use this time to make sure you're well" and to abide by guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Milne said the clinic at the academy has coronavirus test kits on hand but not enough to test the entire student body.
During an address at the academy last week, Coast Guard Commandant Karl Schultz said he suspected the service would take on a larger role in the response to the coronavirus outbreak. "We've been involved, and I suspect our role is going to get increasingly larger," he said.
As an example, he said, the Coast Guard has been reviewing the list of crew members on ships coming into American ports, to determine whether they'd been in areas affected by the virus.
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