Dear Bereans,

This is the campus update for Tuesday, January 11, 2022.

Travel safely

Many Berea students will be traveling to Berea this weekend and we are eager to have you back!   Last weekend would have been really difficult for travel in and around Madison County, so we will hope for better weather in the coming weekend.  Please be very careful—winter travel can often be challenging.  At this point the forecasts call for cold weather on both Saturday and Sunday and a chance of light snow on Saturday.

Quarantine, testing and vaccination update

Last week we had six on-campus students in quarantine, and all have now been cleared as have all our incoming international students.  There are two new student cases; both are in quarantine in the Eco Village.  Among returning students we have heard from 23 so far who have tested positive and may need to defer their return for in-person learning.

As to on-campus employees, we have quite a number of cases, consistent with what is happening locally (see below), a total of 15 positive cases in isolation and one close contact.  The nominal work locations (many folks are working off campus right now) of these cases are as follows: three each in Woods Penn and Edwards; two each in the CDL and Strategic Initiatives; and one each in the Library, Partners, FM, the Farm, Seabury and Lincoln.  Thankfully, as far as has been reported to us, none of these cases is serious, and the number of close contacts has certainly been limited by the fact that many persons are working remotely.

Our overall employee vaccination percentage has improved significantly since last reported before the holidays: overall 92%, and for non-PFE employees 94%.  Well done Bereans!  Get that booster, too, when you are eligible!

Kentucky and Madison County update

For Madison County, the number of new cases over a week has increased dramatically from 582 to 1026, so we are even further into the Red Zone and all but one Kentucky County is in there with us.  (Menifee is the one Kentucky county still in the orange zone.)  We have had eight more deaths in the county since the last report, bringing the total now to 221.   The vaccination rate in the County hit 50.4% this week, continuing the gradual increase.

Kentucky reported 53,495 new cases for the week ending yesterday, nearly doubling the total from the last report again.  The average is now 7642 new cases/day.   The Commonwealth has reported 191 deaths over the last week for an average number of deaths/day of 27.  The numbers of deaths had been decreasing week by week, but this week that turned, and we had an increase by about 20%.  The test positivity rate has continued its dramatic increase and is now over 26%.

Mask policy

Toward the end of last semester, adherence to the on-campus masking policy had gotten a little lax.  Please note that under the present circumstances it is necessary that the indoor mask mandate in all campus buildings will continue and that we need to have good compliance.

Stay safe, get vaccinated and boosted, stay in touch,
Lyle Roelofs, President
Berea College