ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The beginning of fall has ushered in new COVID-19 variants and an increase of COVID-19-positive patients in Michigan hospitals. Wednesday’s numbers included 388 COVID-19-positive hospitalized patients statewide. However, keep in mind that these patients could be in the hospital for other things but have tested positive for the virus. As the American Thinker points out, “Someone hospitalized for back or heart surgery who tests positive for COVID will be counted a COVID hospitalization. This is vastly different from a patient with respiratory failure or pneumonia from COVID.”

With COVID-19 appearing to be surging again, although not at numbers previously seen, revised rules, mandates and masking seems to be back on the minds of some, including the University of Michigan (U-M).

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According to their website, U-M is telling students to report their positive test result to them unless they have tested through the University Health System (UHS) which automatically reports results to the U-M Department of Environment, Health & Safety (EHS). U-M is also asking their students who test positive for COVID-19 to leave the campus and isolate/quarantine for approximately five days. EHS will contact the student about their isolation plan usually within 24 hours of receiving their positive test result.

According to the U-M website, the students need to create an “isolation plan” which they say should include “relocating to your permanent residence, staying with a nearby relative or friend, or finding a hotel space.” They also say, “Students in Michigan Housing must leave their residence halls during isolation, even if they are in a single room.”

No advice is given about what to do if the student can’t afford a hotel room, a plane ticket or gas to leave the campus or if no one is available to come and get them. There is also no information on the website about whether a student can get financially compensated if they are forced to leave the campus. The rules also don’t seem to take into consideration the possibility of the spread of the virus on public transit or in a confined vehicle with a friend or parent. Last year, the university had 500 beds in a separate building to house students who tested positive. Those buildings were demolished for new residence halls.

Yassenia Santana, a student from the Dominican Republic talked to CBS Detroit about the university’s new isolation rules saying, “As a transfer student who doesn’t live here, I found that crazy…Because sometimes we don’t have money to go to another place. Sometimes, we don’t have another family to go to.”

U-M Student George Parveo was of a similar opinion and said, “I personally wouldn’t be willing to do that (leave) because I’m not in a position to reasonably pay for a hotel room for five, six days.”

U-M defended their new isolation rules in an email to Fox Digital by saying, “Isolation and quarantine are standard practices for preventing the transmission of many infectious diseases including COVID-19, measles, tuberculosis, and many others. The website highlights COVID-19 because we are seeing many cases of this particular disease on campus. Other diseases would be addressed accordingly if they were seen in our campus population.”

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Students who attend the university before this fall were required to get a COVID-19 vaccine in order to attend classes on-campus but U-M lifted the policy for this semester because the current vaccines for the new variants haven’t been released yet. The university, however, still recommends the students get a COVID-19 vaccine and they say, “While no longer required, the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine still offers important protection both at the individual and community levels and everyone is encouraged to receive a dose of bivalent vaccine when they are eligible. In the fall semester, we will hold multiple clinics offering the latest vaccines for both COVID-19 and influenza.”

Even though health records are supposed to be private, U-M is telling students to report their positive COVID-19 test results. Things are different in East Lansing though. At Michigan State University, they are allowing students to stay at their place of residence and to self-isolate for at least five days. They also do not require the students to report their COVID-19 positive case to the university.