The number of TU Delft students with corona is rising

Anyone opening the RIVM’s corona dashboard will see that the Municipality of Delft is now dark orange: 139 of the 100,000 inhabitants tested between 26 August and 8 September tested positive for the coronavirus. This is a huge jump compared to the previous week.

Increase among students
While there may be no direct explanation for it as yet, communications advisor Marjolein Walsmit says that the GGD Haaglanden (public health service of the Haaglanden region) sees an increase in infection among TU Delft students. There appear to be ‘some clusters’ in student houses. According to Walsmit, the flow of first year students to campus for the reception week (OWee) and on-campus introduction activities did not affect numbers at all.

Whatever the cause, the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering is now seeing the consequences. The Faculty issued a ‘corona alert’ earlier this week stating that a number of bachelor students had been tested positive. It is unclear how many people are affected. TU Delft cannot request or issue medical information as it is subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Plan of action
A spokesperson did say, however, that GGD Haaglanden contacted TU Delft after seeing the clusters of infected students. “The GGD, Municipality, TU Delft and a delegation of the TU Delft student community are in close contact.” This will lead to a plan of action to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus in Delft.

At the moment, the infections will not affect the physical teaching on campus. TU Delft says that it will take preventive measures should the GGD deem it necessary.

• Students who test positive for the coronavirus are requested by the GGD to inform their contacts at TU Delft themselves. The Safety and Security Department can help them with that. Contact via iv@tudelft.nl or 015-2782777.