Dear Colleagues,
The COVID-19 Task Force had a meeting on Thursday, October 28th. Here are the meeting notes from the Augsburg Staff Union representative.
Minnesota Department of Health Updates:
- MDH suggested keeping the masking requirements indoors through the end of November.
- During the MDH meeting, there was a discussion of what not to use antibody testing for.
- MDH has an updated K-12 decision tree which can also be used in the higher education setting.
- MDH is preparing training for those sharing reassuring and accurate vaccine information with the community.
Dashboard Update:
- We are continuing to see a low number of cases per week– both vaccinated and unvaccinated.
- Vaccination numbers (students and faculty/staff) continue incremental improvement.
- Regional transmission is still very active.
- Testing Access Update:
- A summary of testing opportunities will be discussed with Augsburg Day Student Government regarding how to use and share the information.
- Communication Update:
- COVID Policy hold communication has been sent to students, with information to faculty and staff who may get questions from students.
- Federal approval of booster vaccinations added to Outbreak Planning site.
We set up a Google Form so Augsburg Staff Union members could state their questions or concerns to be addressed at the meeting. The following question was requested in advance of the meeting:
- Q: When an Augsburg staff, student, or faculty member gets a booster to their COVID-19 vaccine, do they need to or are they encouraged to report that info to Augsburg? If so, how?
- A: Dawn Miller addressed this briefly during the meeting. HR is waiting for more detailed guidance from OSHA about federal requirements. Employees are welcome to upload their booster information on the Human Resources page, but this is not a requirement at this time. As more information is clarified, this question will be provided a fuller answer at a future meeting.
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.