A researcher who was working in UC Santa Barbara’s Elings Hall tested positive for the coronavirus on June 17, university spokesperson Andrea Estrada confirmed in an email to the Daily Nexus.
On June 17, the researcher reported feeling ill, did not come into work and subsequently tested positive for the coronavirus. Courtesy of the CNSI
The researcher was last present at Elings Hall on the day before they tested positive, June 16, during which they reported having no symptoms of the virus and observed all safety protocols and mitigation procedures, according to an email from the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) executive board sent out on June 19.
On June 17, the researcher reported feeling ill, did not come into work and subsequently tested positive for the coronavirus, the executive board said in the email.
As of now, UCSB has confirmed seven cases of the coronavirus in the community, including two others this past week.
Estrada said the university did not make a campus-wide announcement due to the public health department’s determination that the case poses a “low risk of transmission” to the greater community.
After learning about the positive case, the CNSI executive committee decided to close down Elings Hall on June 19 and to vacate the building’s Materials Research Laboratory Spectroscopy Facility — one of the areas in which the researcher worked — until June 24, the email said.
Any staff members who may have been in close contact with the researcher have already been contacted, according to the email.
The CNSI executive committee said in the email that it plans to reopen Elings Hall “for most users” on June 22, after being “advised by Student Health that a continued building-wide closure is not necessary.”
