Dear Bereans,
This is the campus update for Tuesday, July 12, 2022. I haven’t sent updates in a month because there has been little to report. Cases among students on campus were very few, and employee quarantines were staying quite low, as well, and things have been operating more or less normally on campus. In the last few days we have encountered some difficulties at the CDL, so it seemed reasonable to put out an update.
Quarantine update
At this point, we do not have any on-campus students in quarantine and have not had any student cases in the prior two weeks, either. Among on-campus employees we have Bereans who work in IS&S, HR and the CDL (one each) quarantining. The CDL case, which originated with a child who tested positive, also resulted in a number of staff close contacts and the closure of three classrooms through tomorrow. To the families and the staff affected, please know we are thinking of you and hoping that all will be back to normal and that no one will have a serious case to deal with.
COVID-19 Community Level
As of last Friday, our state is quite a patchwork quilt.
Note that Madison County remains “Yellow” in terms of COVID-19 Community Level. Most of the counties to our north are “Red” and our other neighbors are all yellow, with the exception of Jackson County which is “Green.” A number of the Eastern counties remain red.
The CDC level and guidance for these levels can be found here.
The main difference between the CDC recommendations for the “Green” and “Yellow” levels is that indoor masking in congregate settings is recommended for “Yellow,” while it is discretionary for “Green.” Our on campus guidance remains to stay with masking in congregate settings.
Kentucky update
The Commonwealth reports on a weekly basis now:
- numbers of new cases statewide (although I think many cases go unreported as some persons just quarantine on their own after doing a self test and getting a positive result);
- positivity rate (on professionally administered PCR tests);
- and the number of new COVID deaths.
The number of new reported cases in the Commonwealth has been hovering around 10,000/week, which remains far, far below the earlier surges, where the state had upwards of 10,000 new cases every day. For the last week we averaged 1564 new cases/day in Kentucky. The test positivity rate for the past week, at just about 17%, is certainly in the worrisome range, but fewer of the cases seem to be serious in contrast to the earlier surges. The number of deaths in the state for the last week was 62 for an average of 9 per day, again holding about steady and fairly low in comparison to earlier surges. Still, we should not be numbed to nine of our fellow citizens passing away every day from this scourge—that is just too much suffering and sadness!
National COVID news
The one favorable development that is worthy of our attention is that the FDA has recommended adjusting the vaccines to more effectively target the omicron subvariants, especially BA. 4 and BA. 5, since the original vaccination series most of us have had is only 15% effective against these new subvariants. It will take the major US vaccine manufacturers about three months to complete this adjustment. In order to operate safely throughout the coming academic year, it will likely be advisable to require this new booster for on-campus students and to strongly recommend it for employees when it becomes available.
Stay safe and up-to-date with vaccination protections,
Lyle Roelofs, President
Berea College