As of March 9, Emerson’s Kasteel Well campus no longer requires twice-a-week COVID-19 testing, according to an email sent to Kasteel Well students from Viviana Garcia Roqueta, the assistant director of student affairs. The campus will shift to symptomatic testing only.
Kasteel Well’s isolation protocol remains the same, Garcia said. Students who experience symptoms and test positive will relocate to an isolation space on campus. Students who test positive but are asymptomatic will isolate themselves in their living spaces for five days.
“We advise [you] to be safe around each other and in your travels and take the precautions you deem necessary for yourself,” wrote Garcia.
The change was prompted by updated COVID-19 policies from the Dutch government. Starting March 11, testing when experiencing symptoms and isolation is no longer required in the Netherlands, even if a person tests positive.
Before the shift, students completed mandatory self-tests on Mondays and Tuesdays. Each student reported their results to the Office of Student Affairs by showing staff their COVID test.
As Kasteel Well students travel often, the group has a high-risk nature. This prompted the castle to maintain symptomatic testing and its isolation policies, despite not being required to do so by the Dutch government, Garcia explained in a statement to The Beacon.
