A student living off campus in Brunswick tested positive for COVID-19 last Friday, Senior Vice President and Dean for Student Affairs Janet Lohmann said during a town hall with off-campus students on Sunday.

“We became aware of this on Friday because the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] (CDC) contacted us,” said Lohmann. “Even though the student is not part of our testing regime, the CDC contacted us and said, ‘we have a Bowdoin student who tested positive.’ We engaged with that student, [but] the CDC is taking care of the contact tracing because he’s not part of our testing regime.”

Lohmann, joined by Director of Residential Life and COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen, clarified that this town hall had not been scheduled in response to the positive test, but was instead planned to address concerns about rising case numbers in Brunswick and the recent rise in COVID-19 cases at Trinity College in Connecticut. The outbreak at Trinity, which at its peak saw 45 cases, was primarily among students living in off-campus housing.

“COVID is low in Maine, but we are finding ourselves creeping more and more upward, and Cumberland County and Brunswick are finding numbers that are continuing to grow,” said Lohmann. “I think about all of you and the spaces that you’re in and I just want to make sure that you are continuing to engage in all of the protocols to keep yourself safe, to keep your house members safe and to keep your community safe.”