Dear Bereans,
This is the campus update for Monday, January 24, 2022.
Free tests available (reminder from last update, in case you haven’t placed your order yet)
Rapid, self-administered tests have been in short supply because of the omicron surge. The federal government is stepping in to assist. Each household can order four free at-home COVID-19 tests that will be mailed to you. See https://www.covidtests.gov/ for information.
Quarantine, testing and vaccination update
There has been quite a bit of fluidity around student quarantines. Seven students from last week completed quarantine, but we have had a number of new positive tests, so that as of today, we have 10 on-campus students in isolation, four of whom are quarantining at home and six on campus. Among returning students a total of 155 had positive tests and had to delay. At this point 128 of those students have completed their quarantine and have joined us on campus. We also know of 16 students who have been approved for leaves for the term, in most of these cases at because of issues with COVID.
As to on-campus employees, we continue to have quite a number of cases, consistent with what is happening locally. There are a total of 17 positive cases in isolation and two close contacts. (Last week it was 18 and one respectively.) There are eight positive cases amongst employees who work off-site, mostly with Partners for Education. The nominal work locations (many folks are working off campus right now) of the 17 cases are as follows: four positives in the CDL; three in Hafer-Gibson; two each in Seabury and the Farm/Farm Store; and one each in Alumni, Stephenson, the MAC building, Facilities, Draper, and Woods Penniman. The close contacts are, one in FM and one in the Library.
Thankfully, none of the cases has been reported to be concerning at this point.
Our employee vaccination percentages have stayed about the same from last week: overall 92%, and for non-PFE employees 93%*. Well done Bereans! Get that booster, too, when you are eligible! Let’s keep all these omicron cases we’re having as uncomplicated as possible!
Kentucky and Madison County update
For Madison County, the number of new cases over a week has finally decreased from last week, just a bit though from 1,789 to 1717. All of Kentucky remains far into the red zone. According to state reporting we have had 1 additional COVID death in the county for a total of 222. The vaccination rate in the County hit 51.0% this week, continuing a gradual increase.
Kentucky reported 70,348 new cases for the week ending yesterday, which is actually a decrease from last week by about 14%, another indication that we may have passed the omicron peak. The Commonwealth reported 149 deaths over the last 7 days for an average number of deaths/day of 21, which is down about 21%, another significant improvement over last week. The test positivity rate increased again and is now about 33%.
All these improvements in both the county rates, our on-campus rates and in the state are promising. Fingers crossed that the improvement will continue next week!
Stay safe, get vaccinated and boosted, stay in touch,
Lyle Roelofs, President
Berea College
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*Actually those who pay attention to these numbers may recall that I reported this number at 94% last week. The change is due to the fact that we had one resignation of a vaccinated employee, changing the denominator for this percentage calculation. The percentage of 93.54% last week, which rounded to 94%, dropped to 93.4% which rounds to 93%.