September 14, 2020
Dear Students:
For the past few weeks, I have been concerned with the number of our students who have tested positive for the coronavirus. I know that many of you share my concern.
Last week, however, the number of students who tested positive declined significantly, even though we continued to make ample testing readily available to our students. Although this trend is encouraging, we must continue to be very vigilant.
As we monitor this data, it is important for you to be aware of some information that provides some additional context. As indicated on our dashboard, several of the students who tested positive were detected during our re-entry protocol for our residence halls. Therefore, those students did not even return to campus until they were cleared to do so by a healthcare professional. Similarly, some of the students who tested positive are only taking online courses this Fall semester.
There have also been relatively few faculty and staff who have tested positive since we resumed on-campus instruction. That data suggests that our on-campus protocols are presently mitigating the spread of the coronavirus in our classrooms, laboratories, meeting rooms, and other campus facilities. That data also reinforces the value of complying with those protocols – wearing masks, washing hands, physical distancing, and avoiding large gatherings – while off campus, as well.
We have modified our dashboard to communicate another important point: the total number of positive tests since August 17th does not distinguish between the number of students or employees who are presently infected with the virus from those who have presumptively recovered. Therefore, based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH), we will now conservatively estimate the number of people who have recovered. I encourage you to look at the dashboard. Last week, as you will see, there were many more people on our campus who recovered than who tested positive for the coronavirus.
Our team of medical and public health experts has advised me that the other key indicators we monitor on a daily basis are stable or improving.
- Testing Capacity: This team has advised that we continue to maintain ample testing capacity on our campus. Through our partnership with IU Health, there are testing appointments available every day, both at our Health Center and at IU Health-Ball Memorial Hospital. If you have any coronavirus symptoms, you can make an appointment. We have also partnered with Open Door Health Services to have their team conduct testing at Worthen Arena from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Here is more information about this new site.
- Contact Tracing Capacity: Over the last few weeks, we deployed and trained many additional Ball State employees to conduct contact tracing. As a result of this effort, we are able to very promptly notify “close contacts” so that they can immediately quarantine. This response is important to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.
- Isolation and Quarantine Capacity: In addition to hundreds of spaces in University-owned facilities, we have secured hundreds of rooms in local hotels for additional space to safely quarantine residential students who are identified as “close contacts.” We presently have more than ample available capacity for isolation and quarantine, which will soon be posted on our dashboard.
- Healthcare Capacity: The medical staff at our Health Center are presently able to assist people who have mild symptoms. In our region, our partners at IU Health-Ball Memorial Hospital have ample capacity to treat people with more serious complications. Specifically, ISDH reports that nearly 90% of the ventilators in our region are presently available and that approximately 60% of the ICU beds are presently available.
- Personal Protective Equipment: On campus, we continue to maintain more than adequate supplies of single-use and re-usable masks, hand sanitizers, cleaning and sanitizing supplies, and other PPE.
As a result of the determined effort of many people, we have together made progress over the past two weeks.
I am grateful to our students. It is evident from this data that so many of you are complying with our protocols and abiding by the other necessary safety measures. Please continue to assist us in this important work.
I am grateful to our faculty and staff, particularly our colleagues who stepped up to assist us with contact tracing. Because of your commitment, we are able to sustain our vital mission.
I know that this pandemic is quite unpredictable. Indeed, some of these indicators are likely to fluctuate, and it is possible that the number of positive tests could increase in the future. So, we cannot be complacent. We must continue to be vigilant, agile, and responsive.
I also know that we cannot completely control this pandemic. But these trends do show that we have the capacity to make an impact – to mitigate the transmission of the coronavirus.
In short, this data is not a cause for celebration. Rather, this data is a call for continued action.
