Yale College students are being asked not to dine at local restaurants, even outdoors, as the Ivy League school tries to combat rising Covid-19 cases.
The New Haven, Connecticut, university announced its return to campus plan for the Spring semester and detailed a number of measures that will be taken.
Students can come back anytime between Jan. 14 and Feb. 4, but they must quarantine in their dorm rooms until they receive Covid test results, according to a Twitter thread Tuesday by the Yale Daily News, an independent student newspaper.
The changes were announced in a Tuesday email by Melanie Boyd, Senior Associate Dean at Yale College.
"Feel free to order curbside pickup, or take walks or runs off campus," the email, posted to the college's website, states. "Follow these guidelines whether you live on campus or off."
During the quarantine period, students will only be allowed to leave to pick up food and to get a test.
"Yale instituted a campus-wide quarantine until Feb. 7 or (which may be extended depending on public health conditions). Students may not visit New Haven businesses or eat at local restaurants (even outdoors) except for curbside pickup," Yale Daily News tweeted.
"Dining is grab-and-go until public health conditions improve. Yale is currently set to resume in-person classes on Feb. 7 — after two weeks of remote instruction."
The changes at the school come amid a spike in coronavirus cases nationwide due to the omicron variant, which is highly transmissible.
During a virtual news conference Tuesday, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said that the state's Covid positivity rate is at 24 percent.
“A 24-percent infection rate is lousy, and it may get worse before it gets better,” he said, according to NBC Connecticut. "We have the tools in place...the masks, the vaccinations and then the testing. We have the tools to keep you safe and keep going about our lives."
Nationwide, there were 1 million new Covid cases as of Monday, according to data compiled by NBC News.