Dear Bereans,<\/p>\n
This is the\u00a0campus\u00a0update for\u00a0Tuesday,\u00a0January 11,\u00a02022.<\/p>\n
Many Berea students will be traveling to Berea this weekend and we are eager to have you back!\u00a0 \u00a0Last weekend would have been really difficult for travel in and around Madison County, so we will hope for better weather in the coming weekend.\u00a0 Please be very careful\u2014winter travel can often be challenging. \u00a0At this point the forecasts call for cold weather on both Saturday and Sunday and a chance of light snow on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Last week we had six on-campus students in quarantine, and all have now been cleared as have all our incoming international students.\u00a0 There are two new student cases; both are in quarantine in the Eco Village.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Our overall employee vaccination percentage has improved significantly since last reported before the holidays: overall 92%, and for non-PFE employees 94%.\u00a0 Well done Bereans!\u00a0 Get that booster, too, when you are eligible!<\/p>\n
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\u00a0Red Zone<\/strong> and all but one Kentucky County is in there with us.\u00a0 (Menifee is the one Kentucky county still in the orange zone.)\u00a0 We have had\u00a0eight more deaths in the county since the last report,\u00a0bringing the total now to 221.\u00a0\u00a0 The vaccination rate in the County hit 50.4%\u00a0this week, continuing the gradual increase.<\/p>\n Kentucky reported 53,495\u00a0new cases for the\u00a0week\u00a0ending\u00a0yesterday, nearly doubling the total from the last report again.\u00a0 The average is now 7642\u00a0new cases\/day.\u00a0 \u00a0The Commonwealth has reported\u00a0191 deaths over the last\u00a0week\u00a0for an average number of deaths\/day of\u00a027.\u00a0 The numbers of deaths had been decreasing week by week, but this week that turned, and we had an increase by about 20%.\u00a0 The\u00a0test positivity rate has continued its dramatic increase and is now over\u00a026%.<\/p>\n Toward the end of last semester, adherence to the on-campus masking policy had gotten a little lax.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n Stay safe,\u00a0get vaccinated and boosted, stay in touch, Dear Bereans, This is the\u00a0campus\u00a0update for\u00a0Tuesday,\u00a0January 11,\u00a02022. Travel safely Many Berea students will be traveling to Berea this weekend and we are eager to have you back!\u00a0 \u00a0Last weekend would have been really difficult for travel in and around Madison County, so we will hope for better weather in the coming weekend.\u00a0 Please be very […]<\/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-522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-covid-19"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMask policy<\/h2>\n
\nLyle Roelofs, President
\nBerea College<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"