{"id":484,"date":"2021-08-03T18:13:52","date_gmt":"2021-08-03T18:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.berea.edu\/covid-19\/?p=484"},"modified":"2021-08-04T18:15:29","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T18:15:29","slug":"covid-19-update-august-3-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legacy.berea.edu\/covid-19\/2021\/08\/03\/covid-19-update-august-3-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 Update: August 3, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Bereans,<\/p>\n

This is the update for Tuesday, August 3, 2021.<\/p>\n

Quarantine, testing and vaccination update<\/h2>\n

As of today, no on-campus students are in any sort of quarantine.<\/p>\n

I mentioned two employees who had tested positive last week; another close contact in FM later tested positive as well.\u00a0 All three cases are mild and one FM employee has returned to work.\u00a0 The other two complete their quarantines tomorrow.<\/p>\n

We are at about 83% employees have documented their fully vaccinated status up by one percent from last week.\u00a0\u00a0 For none PFE employees, our percentage now rounds to 87%, so that is up by a percent, as well.\u00a0 Well done, Bereans!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kentucky and Madison County update<\/h2>\n

The Madison County Health Department reported a total of 189 new cases for the week ending on Sunday.\u00a0 The 7-day average of new cases per day has increased significantly again to 27! \u00a0We are now back to the Red Zone<\/strong> at 26 new cases per day per 100,000 residents.\u00a0 The department also reports that at this point 42.4% of county residents have been fully vaccinated, an increase of 0.7% over last week.\u00a0 The total number of deaths in the county attributable to COVID-19 as reported by the State remains at 113.<\/p>\n

Kentucky reported 9465 new cases for the 7 days ending yesterday for a 7-day average of 1352 cases\/day an increase by 60% over last week\u2019s number.\u00a0 The Commonwealth has reported 29 deaths over the last seven days for an average number of deaths\/day is 4, again a significant increase, and the latest test positivity rate is up significantly, now to 9.77%.<\/p>\n

As I look at the national data, seen every day on television, we are in a steeper rise in both cases and hospitalizations than at any time since the start of the pandemic.\u00a0 Since a large majority of the cases and hospitalizations are in the unvaccinated, the rise would be even steeper, if half of the national population were not participating in this new surge.\u00a0 One hopeful note is the report that the rate of new vaccinations (on a per capita basis) is now higher in the parts of the country that had been lagging than elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Announcement from the Administrative Committee (AC)<\/h2>\n

In light of the concerning increase in COVID cases due to the delta variant, various authorities are recommending the re-institution of indoor mask mandates even for fully vaccinated individuals.\u00a0 (See, for example, https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/vaccines\/fully-vaccinated-guidance.html<\/a> )\u00a0 The basis for this recommendation is that the high infectiousness of the variant increases the threshold for herd immunity to the range of 85 to 95%, and the wearing of masks indoors, because it decreases transmission, helps to lower that threshold, in effect reducing the likelihood of a community outbreak.<\/p>\n

Considering that guidance, and the fact that our area of Kentucky is now in the Red Zone with cases increasing rapidly, the AC is compelled to re-institute a mask mandate for all persons in campus buildings.\u00a0 It is our hope that favorable developments in external circumstances will allow us to set this mandate aside again at some point in the future.<\/p>\n

We are putting in place with immediate effect the requirement that masks be worn in all indoor spaces, excluding students in their own rooms in the residence halls, and employees when they are alone in their workspace.<\/p>\n

Announcement from payroll department<\/h2>\n

Eligible bi-weekly employees will receive their $250 vaccination stipend on August 18th\u00a0paycheck, and eligible monthly employees will receive their $250 stipend on August 31st\u00a0paycheck.<\/p>\n

For those employees who have been vaccinated but have not yet turned in documentation to Human Resources, you have until this Friday, August 6th to do so.\u00a0\u00a0 We will not be able to process late documents (those received after August 6th<\/sup>) until the September payrolls.<\/p>\n

Vaccination policy at other colleges and universities<\/h2>\n

As of yesterday, the Chronicle of Higher Education lists 631 schools that will require vaccination in the fall<\/a>. This is large increase from last week, but nearly 30 schools, is likely the result of concerns about the infectiousness of the delta variant.<\/p>\n

Stay safe, get vaccinated, stay in touch,
\nLyle Roelofs, President
\nBerea College<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Bereans, This is the update for Tuesday, August 3, 2021. Quarantine, testing and vaccination update As of today, no on-campus students are in any sort of quarantine. I mentioned two employees who had tested positive last week; another close contact in FM later tested positive as well.\u00a0 All three cases are mild and one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":233,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-covid-19"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCOVID-19 Update: August 3, 2021 - COVID-19 Policies and Communications<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"COVID-19 Update: August 3, 2021 - COVID-19 Policies and Communications\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dear Bereans, This is the update for Tuesday, August 3, 2021. 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