(Mining Journal file photo)

MARQUETTE — Because of unanticipated delays in receiving COVID-19 test results, the Marquette County Health Department has recommended Northern Michigan University delay the start of the fall semester by a day, to Tuesday rather than today.

Northern will start fall classes with remote instruction for the first four days, Tuesday through Friday.

“We will follow the advice of the county health department, but I want to emphasize that we are only going to do remote instruction until the test results are in, then we will go to the face-to-face in-person instruction we promised,” NMU President Fritz Erickson said in a statement. “Based on the rate of return now, that should be no longer than the first four days of classes.”

Erickson said it is “unfortunate” that the lab NMU is using, which was contracted with to return results in 24 to 48 hours, has not been able to deliver on that timeline.

“Our revised plan is that we’ll need remote instruction for this first week only as results are coming back more quickly again, but there are still a large number of tests left to process,” Erickson said.

Erickson said during Saturday’s daily meeting between NMU Logistics Team members and county health department officials, the pace of returning test results was discussed and Northern received a new recommendation to start fall classes remotely until the majority of results have been returned.

“We understand the anxiousness of these times and we recognize that having more of the results back will help to make the start of the semester less stressful for all of us,” Erickson said. “I want to thank the Marquette County Health Department officials for discussing this situation with us.” He said Northern will continue to follow the MCHD and Center of Disease Control and Prevention recommendations as it has been since the start of the pandemic.

In an email to the campus community, Erickson reminded the NMU community that “doing the simple things will have the biggest impact” on making face-to-face instruction possible throughout the semester.

“Wear your mask, social distance, avoid large gatherings, wash your hands frequently and avoid touching your face with unclean hands,” he said. “These are things we can all do that will help to determine if we can stay with face-to-face instruction once we begin that format.”

Northern is conducting about 7,700 COVID-19 tests of students, faculty and staff.

According to the dashboard at https://nmu.edu/safe-on-campus/, there have been 24 positive cases as of Sunday afternoon — three employees, eight off-campus students and 13 on-campus students. Of the 7,465 tests completed, 4,418 results have been returned.

Wilson Kneiszel, an NMU senior who lives off campus, said he is happy with the choice the university ultimately made to delay in-person classes. However, he had expressed concern over the initial decision to start face-to-face instruction.

“I think it’s seriously irresponsible for them to put on this performative safety routine — claiming they’re testing everyone before they can go to class — only to throw it out and let untested individuals return to campus,” Kneiszel said in a Friday email. “The fact that there isn’t a contingency plan, and that they’re forcing students and professors into an unsafe environment just for the sake of ‘the in-person experience’ proves that they were never interested in our safety in the first place; they just wanted to keep enrollment up by promising safe, in-person instruction — a return to ‘normalcy’ that everyone wants, but unfortunately isn’t possible.

“The school had a choice: the safety of students, staff and the community or a return to in-person teaching. They chose to bring us back, knowing that infected students will be going to class and spreading COVID-19.”

NMU also announced that due to a positive COVID-19 test result of an individual at NMU’s Temaki and Smoothie King restaurant, the establishment will close for two weeks to allow potentially exposed staff to quarantine and to perform a deep cleaning of the facility. The tentative reopen date is Aug. 31.

The positive result does not impact customers, as Temaki/Smoothie King has only been serving takeout meals with no in-house dining, NMU said.

Northern reported on the status of its other restaurants:

— Starbucks in Jamrich Hall is operational and will remain open;

— Wildcat Den in the Northern Center is open for takeout service;

— Fieras in Harden Hall will remain closed until classes are being held on campus; and

— Northern Lights Dining, NMU’s main student dining hall, is not open to the public but is providing takeout service to students living on campus.

The county health department announced Sunday it has become aware through contact tracing that there have been two public exposure sites on the NMU campus.

One is the NMU Golf Course at these times and dates: after 2 p.m. Aug. 6, before 3 p.m. Aug. 7 and between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Aug. 9.

The other site is the NMU Bookstore at these times and dates: before 4 p.m. Wednesday, between 11:30 and 5 p.m. Thursday, between 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Friday and before 3 p.m. Saturday.

The MCHD is recommending that anyone who visited these places during the time frames listed monitor themselves for COVID-19 symptoms and contact their medical providers should they become symptomatic.

Testing information is available at the MCHD website at mqthealth.org.