As students and faculty have returned to campus for the spring semester, COVID-19 has bared its teeth once again. With mass testing taking place last week, the employees at the Student Health Center have been busy around the clock, working to keep the campus community as safe as possible.
Over the past seven days, the health center has received 1,500 to 1,600 phone calls regarding COVID-19 and the impact it has had on the students returning to campus. Administrative Assistant Tina Oswalt, Nurse Practitioner Sarah Taylor, and Registered Nurse Patty Owens have handled all of these calls between the three of them.
At the moment, there are 82 positive tests for COVID-19, but the real damage is done when it comes to contact tracing. This means that all people who have come in contact with someone who tests positive must go into isolation. Currently, there are roughly 250 students affected.
“The reason we have a lot more numbers this year is because of the lack of social distancing,” Owens said. “It’s making our numbers increase as far as contact tracing is concerned.”
Not only have COVID-19 rates increased on campus, but the Center of Disease Control (CDC) recently released new guidelines at the end of December 2021 regarding vaccination status, which has now affected campus protocols.
“Anybody who hasn’t been vaccinated in the last five months is now not considered up to date.”
This new information made it difficult for the employees at the health center to relay information to the public. Just like the virus, guidelines and mandates are unpredictable and can change at any given time.
“The CDC is ever-changing. It’s like Ohio weather,” Owens said. “They are still learning about this virus and what it can do, this virus is going to be with us forever.”
In addition there has also been a change in the quarantine and isolation rules. The quarantine period has been reduced from 14 to 10 days and people who were exposed to the virus can be “partially released” after a successful symptom screening five days into their isolation period.
If they pass their screening, students can go to their normally scheduled classes and activities but are not allowed to eat or sleep in the same room as others and will remain living in their quarantine room until the ten days have passed.
The Student Health Center also wants to remind students to not go to any mass testing sites if they show any symptoms of COVID-19 because of the risk factor for other people getting tested. For more information on Covid-19 across campus, visit www.ashland.edu/covid-19-dashboard.