College Self Isolation: PPE to Urinate and Run Out of Food

Hundreds of students were asked to isolate themselves in their residences after the Covid outbreaks at various Scottish universities.

They include 600 at the University of Glasgow and another 500 at Abertay University in Dundee. So what is it like to isolate yourself in a student flat?

‘Little by little I’m running out of food’

One student, self-isolating due to positive cases in her student home, told the BBC that she had to adapt quickly.

She said: “Being asked to isolate yourself in the hallways of the university is not the best. It is not like in your own home, where you could have a garden and your own bathroom and a separate room to work and sleep.

“Most of the time I spend in my room. It’s nice, but it can bring me down a bit. I get out of bed, take two steps to my desk, and that’s what I do most of the day.

“We share our bathrooms; there are five showers for eight of us, which is enough, but we have designated two for people who tested positive, so we have tried to contain the virus inside our home.”

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He also said that the students needed practical help.

“I’m slowly running out of food. I’ve only been here a week and haven’t done a big grocery store. I’ve been running out of the few things I brought. It’s another stressor to deal with.”

She said students at her accommodation had socialized in other hallways prior to the outbreak and had been “mingling outside of their home.”

He added that the threat from university housing chiefs that anyone who breaks the rules may be evicted is concerning.

She said: “The threats to expel people are quite harsh. We made the decision as a group to be more responsible because we knew we had no place to go if we were fired. It might make the students think twice.”

‘They need PPE to go pee’

Argyll’s concerned mother Amanda is in regular contact with her 18-year-old daughter who lives in a five-person student flat at Murano Halls in Glasgow, the epicenter of one of the major outbreaks.

She told BBC Radio Scotland’s Mornings with Kaye Adams: “I think the architect at Murano Halls was famous for prison designs. And it has been a difficult and lonely situation.

“My daughter was the first in her apartment to test positive and there was a bit of social stigma in that.”

In their flat, Amanda’s daughter shares a bathroom and kitchen with four other people, making self-isolation difficult.

Amanda said, “You have to put on your personal protective equipment to go urinate. Then you have to disinfect everything: the rinse, the taps, the sink, the door handle before you can go back to your little room. It’s the last thing you do. you want to do when you feel bad.

“She cannot access the kitchen at the same time as the others, so she goes in alone to cook with personal protective equipment and again she has to disinfect everything: the taps, the surfaces, the kitchen, the knives if she has used them.

“She ran out of fresh fruit and vegetables early and now has the stock of dry food with which we sent her to Glasgow.”

Amanda also said doing laundry was a problem because “not much was done” in the first two weeks of college.

Three of the five newborns in her flat have now tested positive for the virus and the other two are awaiting the results, but all are self-isolating.

Where are there cases?

Covid groups in Glasgow focus on two residences, the Murano Street Village and Cairncross residences, with 124 students testing positive so far.

The university said the actual number of infected students is likely “higher” and blamed social activity at the beginning of newborn week, Sept. 12-14.

He said affected students had access to food and other supplies, and counseling was also offered on medical issues, including mental health and wellness.

Elsewhere in Scotland, the 500 residents of Parker House in Dundee have been asked to self-isolate until contact tracing is complete after three confirmed cases of coronavirus.

In Aberdeen, 72 residents of the Hillhead Student Village self-isolate after the students tested positive.

The University of Aberdeen has urged anyone who has attended parties or other gatherings since Friday to volunteer to help with contact tracing efforts, vowing that they will not be punished for violating the guide if they do.