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Post by hcpride on Oct 12, 2020 11:59:25 GMT -5
I’d say if a public entity has to take over your testing protocol (BC) or if you are required to shut down campus at least once (Notre Dame, UConn, Providence, etc) then the reopening shouldn’t necessarily be considered a “success”. Since I was on BC's campus this weekend, here was the protocol that we went through. I was sent a questionnaire through email with a link that asked if I had been in contact with a Covid-19 patient, if I had a fever, running nose, etc. When I got to campus, I had my temperature checked before getting my credential and that was it. That is the precise Covid-related protocol my high school uses (provided one has a valid reason for going onto the grounds, of course) for visitors. If all is kosher with those two steps visitors get a hi tech badge. And teacher/students (daily health check questionnaire + temp scan). And, FWIW, we don’t do benchmark testing, routine weekly testing, surveillance testing, sewage testing, etc. And the kids/staff spend seven hours a day inside one building...after riding a bus to school.
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Post by Tom on Oct 12, 2020 12:15:36 GMT -5
For what it's worth, I had dinner with a BC staff member who lives on campus. He was tested once before school started and had not been tested since.
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Post by hcpride on Oct 12, 2020 12:57:10 GMT -5
For what it's worth, I had dinner with a BC staff member who lives on campus. He was tested once before school started and had not been tested since. If he/she has symptoms or exposure a test may be warranted. “Boston College experienced another successful week of testing through October 9, with a total of 9 positive cases of COVID-19 reported out of 6,581 tests performed, including 4,937 tests of undergraduates. As a result, BC’s weekly positivity rate stands at 0.13%, compared to the Massachusetts state positivity rate of 1.0%.”
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Oct 12, 2020 13:19:25 GMT -5
<5,000 tests of undergraduates means BC is not testing all undergraduates even once a week.
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Post by hcpride on Oct 12, 2020 13:40:07 GMT -5
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Post by Tom on Oct 12, 2020 13:58:01 GMT -5
For what it's worth, I had dinner with a BC staff member who lives on campus. He was tested once before school started and had not been tested since. If he/she has symptoms or exposure a test may be warranted. “Boston College experienced another successful week of testing through October 9, with a total of 9 positive cases of COVID-19 reported out of 6,581 tests performed, including 4,937 tests of undergraduates. As a result, BC’s weekly positivity rate stands at 0.13%, compared to the Massachusetts state positivity rate of 1.0%.” No symptoms or known exposure. (had there been any, I wouldn't have dined with him) Merely pointing out that even with all these tests being reported, the plan might not be as comprehensive as we would like to think
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Oct 12, 2020 16:08:37 GMT -5
I won't speak for BC but when the state takes over responsibility for contact tracing, that is not a feather in your cap. For Colgate, the school is relatively isolated, and the village of Hamilton and the county have low / very low infection rates, last I looked.. the city of Worcester is coded red by the state because of the relatively high, ongoing incidence of infection. Worcester had 26 COVID patients in its three hospitals yesterday, eight were in the ICU.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Oct 14, 2020 11:56:56 GMT -5
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Post by Tom on Oct 14, 2020 12:09:40 GMT -5
There is no truth to the rumor that the Iona event was a Coach Pitino led hoops team outing to a brothel.
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Post by rgs318 on Oct 14, 2020 12:27:46 GMT -5
That clarification is good to hear...if true.
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Post by Crucis#1 on Oct 14, 2020 13:53:57 GMT -5
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Post by Crucis#1 on Oct 14, 2020 16:52:18 GMT -5
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Post by alum on Oct 16, 2020 8:37:38 GMT -5
The states are supposed to have plans for vaccine distribution to the feds by today. This story in the CT Mirror indicates that colleges are among the "critical populations" that the state of Connecticut has identified as early targets for vaccination. If other states consider colleges to be similar to nursing homes, prisons, and other congregate settings, that might bode well for the return to normalcy on college campuses. As we know, the goal posts keep getting moved, but it is good to see planning for a way out of this nightmare. ctmirror.org/2020/10/15/advisory-panel-hears-early-plans-for-vaccine-distribution-in-ct/
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Post by sader1970 on Oct 16, 2020 10:21:29 GMT -5
Just me but I'd give a higher priority to faculty, many of who are much older and more at risk than "university students."
It seems we are almost unanimously in agreement that Covid is less severe for the younger folks though likely they are as susceptible at getting and transmitting the virus. So, IMHO, focus on the most at-risk for severe cases first.
But, I also stipulate I'm slightly biased being 70+ and diabetic.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Oct 16, 2020 17:49:08 GMT -5
There were 1871 tests of HC students, faculty, and staff Monday-Thursday of this week. All negative. In history repeats, a small number of tests were done today, with results reported on Saturday. Based on history, the Friday tests will bring the total number of tests done this week to about 1900. Last positive test (1) was on October 5. That is the only active case at HC.
Number of cases in Worcester city continues to increase, and the city remains coded red. The city averaged about 25 positive tests a day through the first 14 days of October.
In Massachusetts, the highest number of cases per 100,000 over the past two weeks is in the age 20-29 cohort, approximately one case per 50 individuals in this cohort.. --------- Re: Alabama and Saban, AL now has about 35,000 more total cases than Massachusetts, and is experiencing nearly twice as many new daily cases as Massachusetts.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Oct 30, 2020 5:29:33 GMT -5
Holy Cross' last positive test was October 5. For the current week, 1375 tests were done at Holy Cross through Wednesday. For the week ending October 24th, 1929 tests, all were negative.
For the city of Worcester, it's moving deeper into the red zone. For the two week period ending October 29, 459 positive tests.
For the week ending Oct 29, 175 new COVID cases associated with higher education in Massachusetts, bringing the total to 1,583. Colleges and universities have performed 1.9 million molecular tests in MA. The daily positive test for colleges and universities ranged between 0.1 - 0.15% over the past two weeks. Data do not indicate how many colleges and universities are regularly testing students residing off-campus. (HC is testing these students twice a week.) Thus, the daily positive test percentage for colleges and universities may be understated.
Over the past two weeks, the age cohorts with the highest number of new cases in MA are 0-19, 2,450 cases, and 20-29 with 2,264 cases. By contrast, cohort 50-59 had 1,638 cases, 70-79 had 513 cases.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Nov 7, 2020 16:53:12 GMT -5
Updating COVID cases at HC. HC went a month without a positive test, but on November 5, a single student tested positive. Through Friday, HC has conducted 16,601 tests of students and staff, and Friday's positive tests raises the number of students testing positive to 19, and the number of staff positives remain at three. (The student positives exclude the students who partied in off-campus housing in mid-August.)
The State of Massachusetts extensively revised its criteria for determining whether a community would be designated red, yellow, green, or 'gray', based on the number of current COVID cases. As a result, Worcester is now coded yellow, not red as was the case for October.
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Post by hcpride on Nov 7, 2020 17:36:08 GMT -5
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Nov 23, 2020 12:35:54 GMT -5
As of November 22nd, 25 HC students and eight staff have tested positive. (The student numbers do not include the 20+ students infected by a pre-semester, off-campus party.)
About 20,300 tests were done. For an entire month (Oct 6 - Nov 5) there were no positive tests. Over the past week, four staff and three students tested positive.
There is no published info on whether any staff infections were faculty, or on how many of the infected students were living off-campus.
Over the past two weeks, HC conducted an average of 1967 tests per week.
How many tests are being done this week before students leave for the remainder of the fall semester will be known tomorrow.
I expect that the only tests between Thanksgiving and January 2 will be M/W hoops, M/W ice hockey, and international students living on campus. Students return for January term right after New Year's, and for spring semester during the third week of January. The Jo is the campus-wide testing site.
The positive test rate for Nov 4-18 was 3.79% for Auburn, 2.93 percent for Shrewsbury, and 2.36 percent for Worcester. Worcester's percentage would almost certainly be significantly higher if it were not for the extensive college and university being done. Through November 17, there were 2.564 million tests done at MA colleges and universities, with 3,418 positive tests.
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Post by hchoops on Nov 23, 2020 13:09:43 GMT -5
As of November 22nd, 25 HC students and eight staff have tested positive. (The student numbers do not include the 20+ students infected by a pre-semester, off-campus party.) About 20,300 tests were done. For an entire month (Oct 6 - Nov 5) there were no positive tests. Over the past week, four staff and three students tested positive. There is no published info on whether any staff infections were faculty, or on how many of the infected students were living off-campus. Over the past two weeks, HC conducted an average of 1967 It was a very good year
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Nov 23, 2020 14:49:12 GMT -5
This is a link to Harvard';s COVID dashboard. www.harvard.edu/coronavirus/harvard-university-wide-covid-19-testing-dashboardTotal undergraduate positive tests are 26. (Harvard emptied out many/most of the undergraduates on Nov. 22nd, so the final # for the semester may be 26 or a number close to it.) 219 positive cases for all of Harvard; the majority are faculty and staff. I do not know whether that includes Harvard Medical School, and faculty who are on the staff of teaching hospitals.
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Post by hcpride on Nov 24, 2020 19:15:52 GMT -5
Princeton just announced they're bringing all their kids back on campus for Spring semester. Interestingly, their original plan in June was to bring back two year groups in the fall and two other year groups in the spring. But, in August, they changed course and suddenly shut down campus for undergraduates for the fall semester. Now, following the data and science (and building their own lab so they can test often), they will be bringing back all the undergraduates. “The news on the pandemic keeps getting worse,” Eisgruber said. “But the news on college campuses is in many ways better than people anticipated at the beginning of the term.” www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/11/24/princeton-spring-coronavirus/
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Nov 29, 2020 7:07:36 GMT -5
Long article in the Boston Globe on the success that Massachusetts colleges and universities have had in keeping the number of COVID infections very low. No mention of HC. Features the work of the Broad Institute, which hired 300 additional workers to do the testing. Boston University and Northeastern set up their own testing labs. Article discusses the logistics of getting testing materials to the Broad, a critical shipment from China was delayed because new iPhones had priority. Also describes how a contract was signed with a courier company to collect test vials at the various institutions and transport these to Broad in Cambridge. There are eight optimized routes. Broad has twice bumped past its 100,000 tests a day capacity. Two links to the same article, perhaps one will be beyond the paywall www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/28/metro/campus-lesson-controlling-virus/www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/28/metro/campus-lesson-controlling-virus/?et_rid=1745615983&s_campaign=todaysheadlines:newsletter
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Post by hcpride on Nov 29, 2020 7:43:50 GMT -5
Long article in the Boston Globe on the success that Massachusetts colleges and universities have had in keeping the number of COVID infections very low. No mention of HC. Features the work of the Broad Institute, which hired 300 additional workers to do the testing. Boston University and Northeastern set up their own testing labs. Article discusses the logistics of getting testing materials to the Broad, a critical shipment from China was delayed because new iPhones had priority. Also describes how a contract was signed with a courier company to collect test vials at the various institutions and transport these to Broad in Cambridge. There are eight optimized routes. Broad has twice bumped past its 100,000 tests a day capacity. Two links to the same article, perhaps one will be beyond the paywall www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/28/metro/campus-lesson-controlling-virus/www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/28/metro/campus-lesson-controlling-virus/?et_rid=1745615983&s_campaign=todaysheadlines:newsletter/\ /\ Three mysterious (given the data and science) notions a few folks had regarding residential colleges and covid were that kids/staff on campus would necessarily die if colleges campuses were open; kids on campus were far more likely to get infected than kids enrolled and living off campus or not enrolled at all; and that kids on campus would necessarily infect the elderly and ill members of the surrounding community (thus killing some of them). Combine that with the powerful forces of emotion and inertia and you’ll see the closings we saw in the spring...some of which continued in the fall. It is also true testing kids on campus can be a component in the effort to limit the spread of a virus on campus as the articles note. The twice ( or more) a week strategy and the survey strategy and everything in between. As a point of scientific interest I would note that here on Long Island, the 100+ high school campuses have NOT been locales for the spread of Covid. [folks had the same fears and emotions regarding high school campus reopenings as were expressed regarding college campus openings] Masks are mandatory and social distancing, temp checks, other mitigations are attempted . There is no testing ( beyond the usual available in the community).
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Nov 29, 2020 10:46:37 GMT -5
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