Dear Colleagues, The COVID-19 Task Force had a meeting on Thursday, October 7th. Here are the meeting notes from the Augsburg Staff Union representative.Minnesota Department of Health Updates:
- Visit Minnesota’s COVID-19 Response Capacity webpage to view data for capacities for hospital surge.
- Hospitalization rate and test positivity rates are up for COVID-19.
- There is a free Docket smartphone app available to share vaccination status.
- There will be no MDH meeting next week.
Dashboard update:
- Augsburg’s cases are still low.
- Beginning to see accelerating increases of COVID-19 in all regions of MN, including the metro area.
- Updated student vaccination rate information is available based on the new MDH reporting access.
- Augsburg students will have a hold on their course registration for spring semester if they are not vaccinated and/or if they have not filed for an exemption.
- Questions brought up by other members of the COVID Task force during the meeting about student vaccination status:
- How are we handling students who will be matriculating in the spring? Will we also require them to have met the mandate requirements before registering for classes?
- When considering this question, also think about the new international students coming in the spring.
- Katie Bishop, Rebecca John and Mara Jacobson-Schulte will meet to discuss student vaccination status further.
Campus Clear App:
- Compared to 1 year ago, there are half as many reports (symptoms or not, any reporting) in total within the Campus Clear App.
- Since October 2020, there have not been over 6000 reports (symptoms or not, any reporting) in a month until September 2021 (7897 reports).
Other updates:
- Booster information is now available on the Outbreak Planning page and in Amail.
- Working on getting more COVID-19 testing options this semester.
- Working with People Centers to set up a potential COVID-19 testing event.
- A suggestion was brought up that signage be put up around campus to advertise how students can currently get tested.
- Student government is also looking into getting the word out about testing for COVID-19.
- In contact tracing emails, information on where to get tested will be added.
We set up a Google Form in advance of the meeting so Augsburg Staff Union members could state their questions or concerns to be addressed at the meeting. There were no questions this week.
Please note: Urgent questions related to COVID-19 should not be submitted via the Google Form, those questions should continue to be sent to helpline@augsburg.edu, calling 612-474-3100, and/or by using the Augsburg self-reporting form. The interim staff union representative will continue to send weekly updates based on information gathered in the COVID Task Force meetings and questions asked in the google form.