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Yukon University campus closed temporarily after two students fail to self-isolate

Students living on campus are being asked to “restrict their movements” until Friday
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Yukon University has closed its doors temporarily after two students moved into campus housing yesterday without self-isolating. (Crystal Schick/Yukon News file)

Yukon University has closed its doors temporarily after two students moved into campus housing yesterday without self-isolating.

The students moved into campus housing on Aug. 30, and the following afternoon Yukon COVID-19 compliance officers informed the campus that the students had not undergone the 14-day mandatory self-isolation as instructed at the border prior to move-in.

“Most of the students are doing that or have done that. We have made arrangements for some of them. Others are staying with friends, but throughout the summer, we’ve communicated with all students in residence about our expectations around that,” said Janet Welch, vice-president academic and student services.

The two students have no symptoms and public health has said the risk of infection is low. They have now entered isolation at a government facility and will be monitored for 14 days.

Meanwhile, the university has decided to restrict access at the Whitehorse campus for 48 hours to allow time for contact tracing. Right now the campus is only accessible to employees.

“So everyone has been working at home, (and) all of our classes, with a handful of exceptions are online. So shutting the campus in order to clean and do our tracing was seen to be less disruptive in such a low-risk situation, because we’ve been doing them for a month online,” Welch said.

“We estimate there were less than 20 students scheduled to be in face to face classes today,” she added.

In person labs and shop classes have been rescheduled and students living on campus are being asked to “restrict their movements” until Friday.

Welch said she couldn’t comment on whether the students have been charged under the Civil Emergency Measures Act. She also said the university is not releasing details about the students, including where they travelled from and how.

Contact Haley Ritchie at haley.ritchie@yukon-news.com