One thing I tried to impress upon my D is that given her school is testing weekly, there is a chance she could test positive even if she felt completely fine, and then have to quarantine. I told her it would make for an unhappy week or 10 days, but it would then soon be in the rearview mirror and it was only a fraction of time (1/15th, I guess) relative to the whole semester. Best wishes for your son. I’m glad he’s not feeling terrible and cheers to being sprung on the 10th!
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Connecticut College has gone to remote classes due to increasing cases.
Might I “suggest” that responses be at least tangentially related to colleges. Posts that are not tangentially related include (and this is by no means an exhaustive list), what your house if worship is doing and who did/did not wear a mask/become infected amongst government leadership.
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My DS at ASU is thrilled to be back in classrooms. ASU Sync last year was not great for him. ASU policy was that any class over 100 students went virtual. Almost all his classes were over 100. He has also been able to return to Marching band, another big boost.
My DS at Notre Dame is doing well also. The reduced restrictions are helpful. The administration is still strictly enforcing COVID protocols - fever=testing and potential quarantine.
I really think schools need to do a better job of avoiding fear-mongering to increase compliance. The negative implications for many students are going to leave scars for years to come.
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My D’s school is supposedly starting their Covid dashboard today. I still can’t access it. However I emailed asking about Covid cases and received the following info which was from September 3:
The university had 67 total positive COVID-19 cases* for the week of Aug. 22-28.
- 9 unvaccinated with approved accommodation individuals
- 58 vaccinated individuals**
*These totals are subject to change over time as additional data is added.
**Approximately 96 percent of the campus community is fully vaccinated. Less than 1 percent is pending fully vaccinated status or accommodation approval. Nearly 3 percent are accommodated or exempt due to fully remote status. Those still not in compliance are in the process of disciplinary action.
Since they say 96+% of the campus community is vaccinated I’m assuming most of that 3% is on campus too.
Those numbers suggest that vaccinated people have a 73% lower chance of getting a positive test than unvaccinated people at that college.
Note that “getting a positive test” may or may not be the same as “getting COVID-19”, depending on the college’s testing protocols and whether they differ for vaccinated versus unvaccinated people. The type of test can also matter, in that if tests which are prone to giving false positives for dead virus are used, then some people who are vaccinated and/or previously recovered from COVID-19 could get false positives.
Her school did no arrival or pre-arrival testing and according to the website only unvaccinated people are subject to required weekly testing. That week covers approximately the first week students were on campus as move in began August 20th but was staggered over 3/4 days and classes began 8/25. I’m thinking the vaccinated positives were most likely symptomatic unless they were perhaps close contacts/roommates of positive unvaccinated students because why would they be tested otherwise?
Conn College has gone to remote learning and more restriction after 50 students tested positive this week.
Do you have a link to the private team that tracks deaths per month?
Is there any evidence that covid, especially Delta or any specific strain, can’t be contracted again?
Originally there were people who believed that it would be better to just get covid and get it over with, but then people started to get it again and again, so it wasn’t like going to the chickenpox parties of the 60’s and 70’s.
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You’re right about that. A friend’s son had Covid (asymptomatic) in June 2020. Received one dose of Pfizer, didn’t get the second shot before arriving at college and now has symptomatic Covid.
Please stay on topic.
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This is one of those things where I think it’s interesting to hear from people around the country. Where I live, and where my kids go to school, rapid tests are readily available (15 minute response) and PCR test results are almost always provided in less than 12 hours (shorter for kids on campus; almost always a max of 6 or 8 hours). So this feels like a very 2020 type of comment to make (worrying about test results coming in days later, past the point they’d be useful). However, it is possible there are still places where it takes a long time to get results??? I’d be interested in hearing from people who live in places where it is common to take more than 36 hours to get results—that seems so unnecessary now!
As for testing interval, I agree, it seems rare or unheard or for any institution to habitually do daily testing. But at my kids’ campus, the vaccinated close contacts of positive people—they no longer need to quarantine. However, they do get daily tests for the next week, which makes a lot of sense to me as a small subset group of people who should get tested at that very high cadence.
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The turnaround time for a PCR test seems to depend, not on test availability any more, but on the number of people who need to be tested in a given area. So it would take longer to get the test result in a COVID hot spot, where faster turnaround time would have made a bigger difference,
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I do. I know several people who have had the PCR tests done in the last couple of weeks. All have been 2-3 days before getting the result. I haven’t ever heard of it taking 12 hours around here. (Southern VA)
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We are 24-48 hours around here for PCR results (CT).
My daughter and I had symptoms and needed tests last week in Oregon. Testing appointments were 24 hours out, and then we had to wait 36 hours for the results. We were both negative but had to isolate for the 3 days it took to get our results. Rapid antigen tests were completely sold out of local stores.
I haven’t needed any take a test thankfully but a friend’s D studies abroad and getting tests to travel has been quite difficult both in terms of turnaround time and finding locations to have it done. They live in northern jersey.
29-Aug to 4-Sep
122 positives
0.56% vaccinated
2.04% unvaccinated
Not heading in a good direction. Also no idea how many kids were actually tested.
That’s a great question, and locally I really don’t know. I should find out.