The Campus and Community Advisory Committee met again on January 21 to receive an update on campus operations and vaccine distribution. Below is a summary of the meeting from President Ryan Collins.
Remarks from Chancellor Guskiewicz
- 102 students tested positive in their re-entry testing and are currently isolating.
- 17 students are isolating on campus as a result of asymptomatic testing.
- Continuing to advocate to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Orange County Health Department to prioritize front line workers at UNC. This includes food service, housekeeping, maintenance, police, transit, in-person instructors.
Remarks from Provost Blouin
- Expressed gratitude for the hundreds of student volunteers helping with the Carolina Together Testing Program. Those interested in volunteering can sign up to here: https://ipep.unc.edu/students/carolina-covid-19-student-services-corps-carolina-cssc/.
- Encouraged your everyone to take the vaccine as soon as it becomes available.
Carolina Together Testing Program (Amir Barzin)
- Prior to arrival testing has been very helpful in keeping known cases off campus.
- Working with tech development to improve Hall Pass app.
- Reservation system has been very well received – over 70% of tests have been reservations. Trying to improve this more, plan roll out 30-minute time slots instead of 1 hour time slots.
- Positivity rate for on-campus testing is currently 0.54%.
- Asymptomatic testing is generally not covered by insurance, which is why we are pushing on-campus testing (which is free).
Vaccines (David Weber)
- As of today, UNC Health and its 15 vaccination centers across 12 counties have administered 55,700 vaccine doses. Roughly 11,000 people are fully immunized with their second dose.
- Have immunized virtually all UNC Healthcare personnel at the hospital.
- Facing a number of challenges, including rapidly changing guidelines (e.g., change of vaccination priority from 75+ to 65+).
- Remember: vaccine prevents people from getting sick; we don’t know yet if it prevents them from carrying the disease, so they should still practice social distancing, mask-wearing, etc.
- Frontline essential workers will likely include faculty/staff working on campus in-person. Being “essential” is not enough, especially if you can work from home.
- UNC is continuing to advocate for graduate TAs/lab supervisors to be included in front-line workers.