Mississippi State University students in quarantine due to COVID-19 are staying in a third hotel, Fairfield Inn and Suites in Columbus, in addition to the two in Starkville that MSU rented for the entire semester, according to a Tuesday email to faculty from Provost David Shaw.
As of Wednesday, 80 students are staying in the three hotels, and a total of 993 students are in quarantine after either testing positive or coming in close contact with a COVID-positive person, according to data on the MSU website. In total, 1,156 students have been tested for COVID-19 in the past two weeks. Of those, 195 of those students have tested positive and 183 more are awaiting test results.
The Comfort Suites on Russell Street and the Hampton Inn on Blackjack Road in Starkville have a total of 155 rooms, and MSU rented 40 rooms at Fairfield with the option of 45 more, MSU Chief Communications Officer Sid Salter said.
Mark Castleberry, the developer who owns all three hotels, told The Dispatch that Fairfield currently has no regular hotel guests or staff for safety reasons, despite MSU only renting some of its rooms. The hotels’ regular staff have been able to transfer to other hotels in the market either permanently or until the end of MSU’s partnership with Peachtree Hotel Group, the corporate owner of all three hotels.
MSU has staffed the three hotels with employees from the departments of Housing and Residence Life and custodial services, and employees of the Longest Student Health Center will monitor quarantined students’ health on site.
By Sept. 1, students in three MSU Greek life chapter houses had moved out to self-quarantine due to COVID-19 exposure and had the option of either going home or staying in the hotels.
Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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