Campus family,
We are more than three weeks into the school year and I’m proud of how our community has done a great job of wearing masks and following our safety measures to help minimize the spread of illness.
Our first COVID case
Even so, we have our first confirmed case of COVID-19 of the school year at Union. The person lives off campus and contact tracers have already connected with everyone who might have had close contact with the patient. The person will remain in isolation for the appropriate time based on CDC guidelines.
We will not send out a notice about each confirmed case in the future. You can follow what is happening on our campus using the COVID dashboard at ucollege.edu/covid-19, which reports how many Union students or employees are in quarantine or isolation each day. We will also post weekly updates in the uKnow campus newsletter.
No transmission from classrooms
You all have done a good job so far at masking, keeping physically distant, etc., while in classes and at work. But we must continue to use that same care in our social interactions off campus as well. In fact, here is a quote from Lancaster County Health Director Patricia Lopez in her briefing last Friday:
“At this point, our contact tracing has not confirmed any transmission in any classroom settings on college campuses. It’s truly the activities that students participate in outside the school setting . . . such as people gathering socially while not wearing face coverings and not observing physical distancing. We are seeing cases in sports teams and in college gyms, and in going to parties and bars without taking precautions.”
New—COVID testing on campus
Next week Union will be opening a TestNebraska testing site right here on campus. Testing will be conducted from 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays on the east side of Rees Hall across from the Campus Health office.
We are developing a strategy for how to best use testing on our campus to help limit the spread of COVID, and initially we plan to test these groups:
- Symptomatic individuals—We have already been testing those showing symptoms offsite, and now we’ll be able to do that on campus as well.
- Close contacts—If someone had close contact with a known COVID case, they can now also be tested on campus (they were tested off campus before).
- Athletes—We will test all varsity athletes as they begin practice schedules because they have more close contact with each other and students from other schools.
- Residence hall residents—We plan to randomly test dorm residents because they are more likely to have close contact with other students. These tests will be voluntary as long as you don’t have any symptoms.
Thank you to Rick Young and IRR EMT students for organizing and staffing the testing site and to Plant Services for refurbishing the testing site. If you would like to be tested, you must first visit the TestNebraska website to fill out the screening information and register. Choose Union College from the list of testing sites and you will receive a TestNebraska ID and QR, which you must display to take the test.
Please note that you can choose any TestNebraska location—many are open daily.
We can do this
COVID has caused a lot of challenges this fall, but I know we are all thankful we can be together even if we have to put up with some inconvenience. Thank you for helping us keep in- person classes going by getting your daily health checks, properly distancing and wearing masks. Let’s keep working together to keep each other safe and healthy!
Blessings,
Vinita Sauder
President, Union College
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