I’m wondering about this, as well.
D20’s school - 99% vax rate and weekly surveillance testing has done well all semester, but the numbers for the last two weeks are increasing dramatically. There’s just one more week and a half of classes…can’t imagine how difficult it will be for students who need to quarantine during the last week + finals…
Purdue’s numbers also had a spike the first day of return to campus from Thanksgiving break.
I don’t think it was me who used the term “impressive” - but I am, overall, happy with how they have handled things this year (which my D’s freshman year). If you live & die by numbers and will only consider scenarios to be valid in which every student is rigorously tested & monitored, regardless of vax (and previous Covid infection) status, then of course you would feel otherwise.
To me, this is what the vaccines are supposed to do - in case of breakthrough infections, symptoms should be much milder and the threat of death, slim. Even given the positive cases (symptomatic & asymptomatic), on a campus with the overwhelming majority of students, faculty & staff vaccinated, a continued indoor mask mandate exists, not to mention the addition nationwide of children as young as 5 now able to get the vax, the danger of causing death by transmission has been dramatically minimized.
It is my understanding that CDC says a person who is fully vaxxed AND symptom free need NOT quarantine( if a person has been close contact to a covid positive person.)
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/quarantine-isolation.html
So i hope colleges would not require quarantine for such students.
But, I agree with you, if a student were to have mild symptoms are like a cold, it will be very difficult to quarantine at semester’s end.
True…but, one big unknown is whether CDC is going to change the definition of fully vaxed to include a booster. Probably likely they will, but not sure why they haven’t already because the data are very clear.
Barnard released last week’s total (11/29 - 12/5) - and they had 7 positives from 2,804 tests (0.23%) post-Thanksgiving - with 13 students in isolation. So far, that’s been holding steady (plus/minus a few) over the past weeks (COVID-19 Dashboard | Barnard Communications).
Fingers crossed. Will be interesting to see how the spread of Omicron will be reflected.
(City-wide the rate is 1.88%, statewide 4.16% - but those figures can’t be compared, as in the city/state data the divisor is likely to over-represent a “self-selected” subset of those either with symptoms or worried about having had contact.)
Will the new NYC vaccine mandate affect college students in the city?
Seems like it would affect any student or anyone else who wants to go into an indoor dining hall or restaurant, gym, or “entertainment or certain meeting places” in NYC: COVID-19: Vaccine Key to NYC - NYC Health
Close contacts who are vaccinated don’t quarantine at either of our kids’ campuses. Vax rates are in the high 90s. I’m concerned about vaxxed kids testing positive and having to isolate even if they are infected with omicron and it’s not as serious. I understand that we aren’t there quite yet and don’t know that omicron is less serious yet but, if that becomes clear, will the CDC change it’s isolation directive?
Healthy vaccinated young adults aren’t at much risk with earlier variants, so I’m not sure Omicron will change anything unless it’s proven to be much less serious to the vulnerable population.
I can confirm that my daughter quite automatically has her NYC app ready to show her vaccination status when approaching the hostess - leaving her parents struggle to find their glasses, unlock their phones, and frantically search where they hid the app (or picture of the vax/booster card). 
Although I noticed that compared to a few months ago, “enforcement” appears to have vaned in some establishments.
So we will be isolating with Covid for how many more months? What has to happen for that to change?
NU cancelled one of their holiday concerts at the very last minute because one of the student musicians tested positive for Covid. There has been a line at their testing center that last couple of days.
That is the golden question, one many of us in medicine have been asking for months now: when does the 10 days isolation for all positives stop?
If only we had access to inexpensive/free daily rapid testing…tests which are highly accurate in identifying when people are infectious.
Maybe a variant like Omicron will actually trigger a change.
If it does “succeed” to infect many vaccinated, yet with manageable symptoms, it may actually change how the overall risk is perceived, and what precautions are reasonably necessary. At the same time it may (unfortunately) thin out the ranks of those still refusing vaccines, thus continuously reducing that factor as well.
Yes, if it is no worse than a common cold (at least for the vaccinated) while outcompeting Delta and other dangerous variants, that would be a significant game changer.
But it will not be for some time before there is enough data on both the seriousness and the contagiousness of the Omicron variant.
And by then we’ll have another variant is my guess. But hopefully not.
Honestly, I don’t think any of this will abate until the media decides that it’s time to move on. Neither gun violence nor Roe v. Wade is enough to unseat the mighty Covid and all its variants. Feed the beast!
Roche is rolling this out in Europe, and seeking U.S. approval thereafter:
https://www.roche.com/media/releases/med-cor-2021-12-06.htm
“The combination rapid antigen test quickly differentiates between SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses A and B infections, with results ready in less than 30 minutes, allowing informed decisions on patient and pandemic management decisions”