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As the College moves into the final days of our opening 3-week term, we continue to be encouraged by how well our community is thriving. This is our second weekly update.
This week we transitioned to our random COVID-19 testing. On Tuesday, Sept. 1, 202 faculty, staff and students, were tested. In addition to random testing, we also had 35 community members who chose to be tested. We are pleased to share that 181 test results indicated zero positive cases! There are still 21 outstanding tests, but we wanted to share this good news.
Unfortunately, we were notified today of a positive case from a residential student who went off-campus to receive a COVID test. We are enacting our contact tracing and isolating/quarantining protocols to limit exposure to individuals on campus.
While this is a promising start to the academic year, as this was the first confirmed positive case since the beginning of school, we have a long way to go -- so we must remain individually and collectively dedicated to following our new health and safety protocols.
For individuals (faculty, staff, residential students, and commuter students) who were not on campus during the 3-week session but will be joining us for the 12-week session, we will have a COVID-19 testing clinic on Friday, Sept. 11, from 8am-12pm in Boren Lounge. You can sign up for a time slot at this link. The test will be a PCR nasal swab and the cost will be covered either by your health insurance or the CARES Act. If you do not want to be tested on campus, you may provide the result of a negative PCR nasal swab test dated no earlier than Friday, Sept. 4 to covidscreening@guilford.edu. You will need to be tested or provide the negative PCR nasal swab test result before being cleared to attend class or return to work on campus.
PLEASE REMAIN ON CAMPUS DURING OUR SHORT BREAK
With the session break quickly approaching, we strongly encourage Guilford students to stay on-campus and NOT TRAVEL home--unless, of course, you are already living at home. Traveling home features the risk of bringing the virus from campus to your home community. Similarly, you may end up bringing the virus back from home to campus. Considering the increased risks involved, you should only travel, if absolutely necessary.
If you do travel away from your residence hall or off-campus location during the session break, you will be required to re-test once you return on Monday, Sept. 14 or Tuesday, Sept. 15. You can sign up for a time slot at this link.
PLEASE REMEMBER TO UTILIZE THESE IMPORTANT RESOURCES, AS NEEDED
As we shared last week, the College continues to urge all members of the Guilford community to proactively protect against, monitor and report any potential virus symptoms they experience or observe in others. Here are the links to the forms we mentioned in our last communication.
- Covid-19 Self-Reporting Form
- Self-Reporting Form QR Code (check your email for code)
- COVID-19 Anonymous Reporting Form
Guilford College will take every effort to protect personally identifiable information shared in these documents and will not disclose your identity or the identity of anyone with a coronavirus diagnosis unless disclosure to safety and first aid personnel is required for emergency treatment or is otherwise required by law.
The Health and Safety Task Force has received a number of inquiries about the College’s response to the Governor moving the State of North Carolina into phase 2.5. We want our community to know that the State’s Phase is only one key question that we look at when deciding whether we should move in between our operating phases. As a reminder here are the other questions that we also look at when we consider making recommendations to the President:
- Are there early signs of a resurgence in cases?
- Are we testing enough to detect cases?
- Do we have robust contact tracing?
- What Phase is the State in?
- Are we protecting students, faculty, staff?
- Is there sufficient capacity for quarantine and isolation?
- Is there sufficient PPE & testing?
- Are stakeholders complying with restrictions?
The Task Force continues to consider these questions and the requests from different offices and community members as we move forward. At this time, the phasing of the campus has not changed. Please continue to follow the guidelines provided under Phase 2 of the College plan. In particular, the 10-person limit for indoor spaces is still active. Faculty, staff and students should continue to plan their activities and classes under the measures of this phase, measures that have produced very positive results for our campus so far. Faculty should continue to plan for 12-week courses knowing that the 10-person classroom limit will remain in place to ensure that classrooms continue to be healthy and safe spaces.
REMAIN VIGILANT IN FOLLOWING HEALTH AND SAFETY PROTOCOLS
As we stated last week, for the large part, our community has demonstrated great grace and patience in adhering to new protocols. However, we are still receiving reports, pictures, and videos that show that there have been instances of large gatherings where people are not wearing masks or maintaining social distancing. We are also receiving reports that our face covering policy is not being followed. Some community members are still in their offices with the doors open or cracked with no face covering., We are also concerned to learn that some individuals are not only failing to wear a mask, but they are not even carrying one on their person.
The Health and Safety Task Force aims to keep our community as healthy and safe as possible. We understand that external entities are making decisions that they feel work best for their constituents. I want to reiterate that we are making recommendations that we believe are best for Guilford College and our community. We will continue to operate out of our High Alert Level, Low Density Operations Phase (Orange). The Activity Matrix can be viewed here.
Thank you for taking individual and collective responsibility in keeping our campus healthy and safe. Let’s end the 3-week session on a positive note, and prepare for the start of the 12-week session. Be on the lookout for our next weekly update--to be posted online Sept. 11. Please remember that if you have any questions related to COVID-19 and our efforts to mitigate the pandemic on campus please call the COVID-19 Hotline at 336-316-2319. We are all in this together!
Sincerely,
Jermaine Thomas
Director of Public Safety
Health and Safety Task Force Chair