Covid TF Update – Augsburg Staff Union

The COVID-19 Task Force met Friday, September 9th.

Minnesota Department of Health Update:

Most of Minnesota (including Hennepin and Ramsey counties) in low community level as defined by CDC
However, transmissions levels (previous metric we tracked, still used in healthcare settings) are high across almost the entire state
Case rates have declined across the state since August meeting, rate of COVID ICU admissions remains low
Since July, all cases in the state have been omicron; BA.5 subvariant dominant
Reviewed decision making on strengthening or loosening prevention measures based on both institutional factors (such as vaccination rate) and CDC community levels
Not all exposures are the same: Understanding Exposure Risks(CDC)
CDC has retired events guidance; it now falls under “Protect Yourself and Others”
Bivalent Fall Boosters
People that have completed a primary series may receive the booster at least two months after they have completed primary vaccination, or two months after they received a booster dose with any authorized or approved monovalent COVID-19 vaccine.
People 12 years and older can receive bivalent Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine; 18 and older can receive bivalent Moderna
The new bivalent vaccines replaced the monovalent booster vaccines for people 12 and older effective immediately.

Reported campus case levels remain manageable, below 1%
We have a Google Form available for Augsburg Staff Union members to ask questions to be brought up at the COVID Task Force meetings. We did not receive any questions this week. 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 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.