Jeff Sheehy The father of a University of Maryland undergraduate student said this week that the student was temporarily moved from a College Park dormitory to a nearby hotel to quarantine after contracting the virus. Sheehy said this was a mild case, but emphasized that the university must be vigilant and transparent about public health.
“They need communication,” Sheehy said. “They need to tell people that it’s happening. They need to destigmatize people who get coronavirus.”
On Wednesday, U-Md. Health Center Director Spyridon S. Marinopoulos sent a COVID-19 precautionary alert to the 40,000-student campus. Among other things, he noted that “masks are an important defense against the spread of coronavirus and other respiratory viruses,” and that health centers are providing rapid tests to those who need them.
A lot has changed since the coronavirus pandemic threatened the world and campuses closed in early 2020. The pandemic interrupted the next two school years and also created some challenges for the most recent school year. But authorities declared a public health emergency late last spring. Mandatory virus testing is now a thing of the past. Few in higher education anticipate a sudden shift to mask mandates or fully remote learning.
Yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report The number of hospitalizations and deaths related to the new coronavirus nationwide was on the rise in late August. And there is evidence of transmission on campus.
On September 1, Georgetown University notified its student community of 21,000 students about an increase in coronavirus cases that appeared to be “consistent with local and national trends.”
The Catholic university, which has about 5,000 students, announced that a small number of students (up to 15) had tested positive. There are similar reports at Howard University, which has 12,900 students. “A case has been confirmed,” said Hugh E. Mighty, the university’s senior vice president for health affairs. “Everyone is seeing cases. There are infections across the country.”
At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which enrolls about 57,000 students, wastewater monitoring has shown an increase in cases.
“We know that there is a significant amount of coronavirus circulating both on and off campus,” said Awais Vaid, director of the university’s Student Health Center. But Vaid said campus-area hospitals have not experienced a corresponding surge in coronavirus patients, and so far the threat to the university appears to be somewhat muted.
Three years ago, Illinois’ public flagship university launched aggressive measures to track and contain infections, including a large-scale saliva-based virus testing effort. The requirements for the coronavirus vaccination have now ended. The school’s case-tracking public dashboard has been closed. Coronavirus testing and face masks are optional. Vaid said the university has distributed about 5,000 rapid test kits free of charge to students, faculty and staff since the start of the semester.
Some infected students are said to be going home to quarantine. Some people stay in dormitory rooms with single beds. People with roommates can stay in their rooms, but they must wear masks whenever possible, he said.
On this campus and others across the country, fears of the coronavirus have receded, but have not gone away. “It’s not completely erased from memory,” said Weid. “People are still concerned.”
So do campus health professionals.
“We are hearing about cases of COVID-19 occurring in our communities,” said Claudia Trevor Wright, director of the American College Health Association’s COVID-19 Vaccination and Mitigation Project. talk. “Without the extensive oversight that was taking place at the federal level, it’s much more difficult to assess this year whether it’s consistent with past years. There’s a lot more oversight and understanding what’s going on this year. In terms of points, we are in a different position.”
The association recently surveyed universities and found that 18% plan to require some or all students to get a coronavirus vaccine. According to the association, 11% said they would provide free isolation housing to infected students in their dorms, and 38% said they planned to have infected students stay in a room with a roommate.
Recently, debate over mask-wearing policies in public elementary and junior high schools in some areas has intensified. But that doesn’t seem to be the case at the university level yet. In general, there appears to be little appetite for increased public health controls on campuses.
“Most people think COVID-19 is in the rearview mirror,” said Trinity Washington University President Patricia McGuire. “And of course that’s wrong.”
McGuire said the university of 1,850 students has not seen a significant number of cases this semester. But she said she wouldn’t be surprised if there was an increase. Universities still require students to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. “We weren’t very strict or energetic about booster shots,” McGuire said.
Mighty, a professor at Howard University, said the university is keeping a close eye on whether COVID-19 cases require treatment or hospitalization. So far, there are bright spots. “We haven’t seen an increase in severity,” he said. He said the university has enough beds to isolate infected students.
Many universities are dealing with COVID-19 as they would other seasonal illnesses such as the flu that circulate on campus. George Mason University, which serves about 40,000 students in Northern Virginia, has ended most pandemic-specific measures.
When asked for the latest information on this fall’s coronavirus outbreak, a GMU spokesperson said, “At this time, we are implementing standard health support through the Student Health Office and testing for any respiratory illness as needed.” with relevant recommendations,” he wrote.
The district and George Washington University, which has about 26,000 students in Northern Virginia, are taking a similar approach. Coronavirus testing, contact tracing and related measures have been completed. COVID-19 vaccination is “strongly recommended” but no longer required. The university “continues to monitor federal and local guidance, research and data, and the status of COVID-19 outbreaks on campus to best support the health and safety of our community.” Stated.