The Brazos County Health District has confirmed that a Texas A&M student is one of the four people in Brazos Valley that have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.
The student is a female in her 20s and is the first confirmed case of the coronavirus among the A&M community. The Brazos County Health District confirmed in a press conference on March 19 that the student recently traveled from New York.
The other three confirmed cases in Brazos County include another female in her 20s who traveled from Spain, a male in his 60s who traveled from Colorado and a female in her 50s who also traveled from Colorado, said Dr. Seth Sullivan, The Brazos County Alternate Health Authority.
“None of these four are contacts with one another,” Dr. Sullivan said. “All of them are doing well as of the last time we were able to check in this past hour, and they are continuing to monitor their symptoms at home.”
President Michael K. Young said in a university-wide email that this is the only known case of the virus among A&M students, faculty and staff at this time.
“We have confirmed that the student was not on campus after travelling to New York,” Young said. “We send our best wishes for recovery and are supporting our student and the health authorities.”
Dr. Sullivan said the Brazos County Health District advises students returning from Spring Break to quarantine themselves in an effort to help prevent the further spread of the coronavirus among the Brazos Valley community.
“We talked about in our previous press conference the images in airports of individuals coming back and in baggage claim — that’s not what we’re not looking for,” Dr. Sullivan said. “We’re not looking for individuals to be that close who are coming from all areas. Anyone coming back from Spring Break: I would urge you to stay home.”
Dr. Sullivan said the Brazos County Health District is focusing its efforts on “flattening the curve” for the next two weeks by limiting social interactions in the community and prioritizing testing for anyone who may have been in contact with those who tested positive or who returned from areas with a large outbreak of cases.
“We should be prepared to do our part,” Dr. Sullivan said. “We’ve been talking about our civic duty here and our effort to protect our vulnerable neighbors. Yes, you have seen and you will see measures that have been passed down … For these two weeks, we’re going to do everything that we can to prevent this spread. No one knows what’s going to be two weeks from now, but we know what we need to do right now.”