COVID-19 Policies and Communications

Dear Bereans,

This is the campus update for Monday, October 18, 2021.

Quarantine, testing and vaccination update

We continue to have no on-campus students in any sort of quarantine; well done students!

As to on-campus employees, we have one quarantine in Facilities based on a positive test that ends tomorrow.  We also found, after the fact, that a faculty member in Danforth Technology had tested positive; that quarantine ended today.  We also have one Edwards staff member in close contact quarantine.  We also have one PFE employee who does not work on campus who has tested positive; that quarantine will extend throughout this week.

Our overall employee vaccination percentage remains at 90%, and, for non-PFE employees, our percentage again rounds to 92%.  Let’s keep going; we can continue to improve!

Continue reading COVID-19 Update: October 18, 2021 →

Dear Bereans,

This is the campus update for Monday, October 11, 2021.

Quarantine, testing and vaccination update

Starting with the good news, as of today, we continue to have no on-campus students in any sort of quarantine.  This is especially welcome news since there was the possibility of COVID coming back to campus after Reading Period travel.  I conclude that students did a great job focusing on reading (which is quite safe!) and avoiding some riskier activities.  Well done, students!

As to on-campus employees, we have two new positive tests, one in the Labor Department and the other in Grounds—both are in quarantine and are reported to be doing well.  Quarantine completes today for the case from last week in FM.  (The two new cases are also breakthrough cases, a good reminder for all of us to continue to exercise care even if we are vaccinated.)

Our overall employee vaccination percentage has increased to 90%, and, for non-PFE employees, our percentage now rounds to 92%, both up one percent from last week.  Let’s keep going; we can continue to improve!

Continue reading COVID-19 Update: October 11, 2021 →

Dear Bereans,

This is the campus update for Monday, October 4, 2021.

Quarantine, testing and vaccination update

Starting with the good news, as of today, we have no on-campus students in any sort of quarantine.  As to on-campus employees, we have one new positive test in FM.  The infection appears to have been acquired off campus, and no other employees are needing to quarantine at this point.  (The employee is vaccinated, so this is a breakthrough case, a good reminder for all of us to continue to exercise care even if we are vaccinated.)

Our overall employee vaccination percentage remains at 89%, and, for non-PFE employees, our percentage rounds to 91%, up one percent from last week.  Let’s keep going; we can continue to improve!

Continue reading COVID-19 Update: October 4, 2021 →

Dear Bereans,

This is the campus update for Monday, September 27, 2021.   (I apologize for the length of this update—there’s a lot of important stuff to share!)

Quarantine, testing and vaccination update

Starting with the good news, as of today, we have no on-campus students in any sort of quarantine, and as to on-campus employees, we also have no quarantines, aside from one that is ending today.

Our overall employee vaccination percentage has inched upward to 89%, and, for non-PFE employees, our percentage again rounds to 90%.  Let’s keep going; we can continue to improve.

Continue reading COVID-19 Update: September 27, 2021 →

Dear Bereans,

This is the campus update for Monday, September 20, 2021.

Quarantine, testing and vaccination update

As of today, we have just one on-campus student in precautionary quarantine (at home).

As to on-campus employees, we have just one staff member (Stephenson Hall) who has tested positive and is quarantining.   We have one CDL employee who is quarantining as a close contact due to cases within that individual’s family.

Continue reading COVID-19 Update: September 20, 2021 →

Dear Bereans,

This is the campus update for Monday, September 13, 2021.

Quarantine, testing and vaccination update

As of today, we have just one on-campus student remaining in isolation because of a positive test, and that quarantine is scheduled to end tomorrow.

As to on-campus employees, we have one Gen Ed faculty member who has tested positive and will be quarantining throughout this week.  We also have two staff members (Lincoln Hall and Stephenson Hall) and who have tested positive and are quarantining.   We also still have one employee in Grounds who is a close contact quarantine.  In addition to on-campus employees, we have three PFE employees who have tested positive and are quarantining.

Although there have been some positive tests with a nexus to the extended CDL community, there were no mandated close contact quarantines among staff. Unfortunately, however, we have a new development as of this afternoon…  A positive case for one employee (among those above) has resulted in some CDL children in that family testing positive.  We are working with the Health Department to determine the appropriate response and CDL community will be receiving updates as soon as possible.

Our overall employee vaccination percentage has increased by 1% to 88%, and for non-PFE employees, our percentage rounds to 90%.  Let’s keep going; we can do even better.  The Delta surge may or may not be plateauing, but there are still a LOT of new cases every week in Madison County and in Kentucky

Regular surveillance testing begins this week.

Continue reading COVID-19 Update: September 13, 2021 →

Dear Bereans,

This is the campus update for Tuesday, September 7, 2021.

Quarantine, testing and vaccination update

As of today, we have two on-campus students in isolation because of positive tests, both of whom have gone home for their quarantine.  One of those two has elected to take a medical leave for the current semester.  As to on-campus employees, we have two employees who have tested positive and are quarantining, one in the CDL and one in Facilities Management.  Both those quarantines end this week.  We also have one employee in Grounds who is a close contact quarantine.

Our overall employee vaccination percentage remains at 87% and for non-PFE employees our percentage rounds to 90%.  Let’s keep going; we can do better, and the situation is still quite concerning in Madison County (see below).

Continue reading COVID-19 Update: Sept. 7, 2021 →

Dear Bereans,

This is the campus update for Monday, August 30, 2021.

Quarantine, testing and vaccination update

As of today, we have three on-campus student in quarantine because of positive tests.  Two are quarantining on campus and the other is at home.  As to on-campus employees, we have four employees who have tested positive and are quarantining, one in Grow Appalachia, one faculty member in the MAC building, and two FM staff members.  We also have two CDL staff members in close contact quarantine and one classroom remains closed due to cases among the children.

Our overall employee vaccination percentage remains at 87% and for non-PFE employees our percentage also remains at 89%.  Let’s keep going; we can do better.  If you are still making up your mind, please see the attachment!

Continue reading COVID-19 Update: August 30, 2021 →

Dear Bereans,

This is the update for Monday, August 23, 2021

Quarantine, testing and vaccination update

As of today, we have one on-campus student in precautionary quarantine and one student living off campus who is a close contact quarantine, but no positive tests.  As to on-campus employees, we have four employees in close contact quarantine, one in Marketing and Communication, one faculty member in Knapp, one FM staff member and one CDL staff member.  The two COVID positive PFE employees (both off campus) from last week continue their quarantines and finish up this week.  None of the cases seems serious, and all except the CDL case likely result from off-campus exposure.

Continue reading COVID-19 Update: August 24, 2021 →

Dear Bereans,

This is the update for Monday, August 16, 2021.   We are delighted to have welcomed 385 new students to Berea College, 345 incoming first-year students and 40 transfers.  We are so pleased to have you here and are hoping that your first weeks at Berea go very well.

Quarantine, testing and vaccination update

As of today, we have four on-campus students in precautionary quarantine, but no positive tests.  As to on-campus employees, we do have some positive cases quarantining, one on the faculty (Draper Hall), one in PFE (Corbin, so not actually on campus), one in Forestry, and one in Marketing and Communication.  None of those cases seems serious, but quarantines will currently run through this week and into the next.  All cases likely result from off-campus exposure; we also have four close contacts, but only one of those four was due to a campus contact.

We continue to make good progress on vaccination and are at about 86% among employees (up by 1%) who have documented their fully vaccinated status.   For non-PFE employees, our percentage is now 90%, also up by 1%.  Well done, Bereans!

[Repeating this thought from last week because it is so important…]  Because of the heightened contagiousness of the delta variant, epidemiologists believe that we will need to be in the 85% – 95% range of vaccination percentage to limit the likelihood of an outbreak on campus.  We are getting there!  Unfortunately, in our county and state, the percentages are much lower, so outbreaks off campus will almost certainly continue.

Continue reading COVID-19 Update: August 16, 2021 →