Dear Bereans,
This is the campus update for Monday, February 28, 2022. By next week this time, Spring Break will have commenced, so there will likely not be a campus update on Monday, the 7th. Enjoy the break but stay careful; you don’t want to be the one who brings the virus back to campus with you.
Quarantine, testing and vaccination update
Overall cases are declining in our county and in our state this week, and the student numbers improved, too. The six students in isolation last week have all completed their quarantines without complications. We have two new student cases, one quarantining on campus and one at home.
As to on-campus employees, we are about level. There are four on-campus employee positive cases in isolation right now and no close contacts. (Last week it was two and two respectively.)
There are another three positive cases amongst employees who work off-site, mostly with Partners for Education.
The work locations of the employee isolation cases are Lincoln Hall, Danforth Technology, Hutchins Library and the CDL.
Our employee vaccination percentages have stayed the same from last week: overall 92%, and for non-PFE employees 94%. Well done, Bereans! Get that booster, too, when you are eligible!
Adjustments to masking policy coming?
Last Friday the CDC issued new guidance regarding mask wearing.
The main gist of the advice is that if one resides in a community where the Community Level of COVID Transmission is “high,” then the wearing of masks indoors is still recommended. The CDC website also has a page where one can obtain that level.
It correlates with the red zone designation used in Kentucky. Also, if one is symptomatic, has tested positive, or been in close contact with a known case, masking is recommended regardless of the level of community transmission. In other cases, the masking recommendation is set aside.
At this point that level in Madison County is still “high,” so the AC is not yet ready to consider adjustments to the College’s masking policy.
Given that Spring Break is within sight now and that some employees and students will be traveling so that the risk of cases appearing on campus will be somewhat elevated after the resumption of classes, we will likely continue the masking requirement in all indoor College spaces at least until March 21, regardless of whether Madison County has reached the Orange level before that date.
Kentucky and Madison County update
For Madison County, the number of new cases over a week has continued to decrease from last week quite significantly from 436 to 256. At 35.8 daily cases per 100,000 persons, Madison County is still in the red zone, but orange, when we get down to 25, now seems within reach. COVID deaths generally lag cases, and, now, finally, the rate of deaths is decreasing. We have had only one additional COVID death in the County since last week for a total now of 248. This is down from six last week. The vaccination rate in the County hit 52.2% this week, continuing a very gradual increase.
Kentucky reported 13,023 new cases for the week ending yesterday, which is a significant decrease from last week by about 46%. The Commonwealth reported 209 deaths over the last week which is down a little from the preceding week. The test positivity rate has continued to decrease from 12.7% last week to 8.6% this week; hopefully soon it will be under 5%.
The map of Kentucky now shows about half the state having reached orange and 12 counties are actually in yellow.
Stay safe, get vaccinated and boosted, stay in touch,
Lyle Roelofs, President
Berea College