School Delays Spring Semester Amid Omicron Outbreak

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, NY — Molloy College students get a slight reprieve before starting the spring semester. Classes will resume on Jan. 24 for weekday students, instead of the original date of Jan. 18. Students on a weeknight schedule begin on Jan. 22.

The delay was due to the omicron variant surge on Long Island, although cases have begun to slowly tick downward.

"Given the surge, everyone is currently experiencing, we are utilizing four discretionary days (snow days) at the beginning of the semester to gain a few more days until classes start," Ken Young, Assistant Vice President, Molloy College, said in a statement. "This buys us a little more time to allow the anticipated decline of COVID-19 cases to diminish as predicted. The goal is, of course, to help the Molloy community stay as safe as possible."

If a winter storm requires the school to cancel in-person classes,remote learning would be reactivated, the LI Herald said.

Through Jan. 14 , the college had six positive COVID-19 cases and 10 people in mandatory quarantine, according to the school's website.

Anyone returning to a Molloy location after testing positive must, in part, not have a fever for at least 24 hours without the aid of fever-reducing medication.