Here’s what you need to know for the week of April 4:
- Use the CC COVID-19 dashboard to inform your masking choices
- Students must continue to participate in twice weekly screening testing
- Learn about “Clean Air in Buildings Challenge”
- Update on CDC’s COVID booster guidance
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Students: Get Tested Twice Weekly
Screening testing helps to prevent large outbreaks by breaking chains of infection. Currently, all students test twice per week. Testing frequency is evaluated weekly and adjusted based on test results and participation.
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CDC Recommends Additional Booster for Some Populations
Data continue to show the importance of vaccination and booster doses to protect individuals both from infection and severe outcomes of COVID-19. During the recent Omicron surge, those who were boosted were 21-times less likely to die from COVID-19 compared to those who were unvaccinated, and seven-times less likely to be hospitalized. CDC continues to recommend that all eligible adults, adolescents, and children five and older be up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines, which includes getting an initial booster when eligible. Following the FDA’s regulatory action in late-March, CDC guidance now recommends certain immunocompromised individuals and people over the age of 50 who received an initial booster dose at least four months ago get another mRNA booster dose to increase their protection against severe disease from COVID-19. Separately and in addition, based on newly published data, adults who received a primary vaccine and booster dose of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 vaccine at least four months ago may now receive a second booster dose using an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. Read the full update.
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What to Do If You Have COVID Symptoms
Students, if you’re feeling sick, stay home and contact the Student Health Center at (719) 389-6384 to make an appointment. Employees should contact their healthcare provider and their supervisor.
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EPA Launches “Clean Air in Buildings Challenge”
The White House, in partnership with the EPA, has launched the “Clean Air In Buildings Challenge.” Because COVID-19 is an airborne disease, cleaner air indoors helps prevent spread. The challenge includes recommendations for improving indoor air quality, including ventilation, filtration, portable filters, and the use of CO2 sensors. This may be a first step toward new clean indoor air standards. Learn more about indoor air and COVID-19. Faculty and staff may request a Corsi-Rosenthal box air filter for classrooms and gathering spaces by filling in this form.
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New COVID Variant Makes Up Majority of U.S. Cases
According to the CDC’s COVID Data Tracker, new variant BA.2 now makes up about 55 percent of cases in the U.S. It is already dominant in other countries and even more highly transmissible than BA.1 (original Omicron). This new variant is anticipated to cause another wave of infections of unknown magnitude in the U.S. in the coming weeks (hence the consideration of fourth doses — see booster update above).
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Hear from Scientist Richard Corsi on Box Filter Invention
Dr. Richard Corsi (co-inventor of Corsi-Rosenthal box air filters with Jim Rosenthal, a Class of 1970 CC graduate) presented at the recent CITRIS Research Exchange Seminar Series Spring 2022 event. Here is a link to the recorded event. During the pandemic, Corsi delivered numerous national webinars on layered risk reduction to reduce the spread of COVID-19, completed modeling to underscore scenarios of high risk, developed educational tools for school districts, and conceptualized a highly effective new air cleaner for respiratory aerosols that has become known as the “Corsi-Rosenthal box,” dozens of which have been built and distributed on the CC campus. Faculty and staff may request one of these box air filters for classrooms and gathering spaces by filling in this form.
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Post-COVID Conditions
Although most people with COVID-19 get better within weeks of illness, some people experience post-COVID conditions. Post-COVID conditions are a wide range of new, returning, or ongoing health problems people can experience four or more weeks after first being infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. Even people who did not have COVID-19 symptoms in the days or weeks after they were infected can have post-COVID conditions. These conditions can present as different types and combinations of health problems for different lengths of time. These post-COVID conditions may also be known as long COVID, long-haul COVID, post-acute COVID-19, long-term effects of COVID, or chronic COVID. CDC and experts around the world are working to learn more about short- and long-term health effects associated with COVID-19, who gets them, and why. Here’s the latest information from the CDC. According to CDC, “The best way to prevent post-COVID conditions is to prevent COVID-19 illness,” including first as well as re-infections. Attend this virtual event with Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at Yale University, to learn more about long COVID. Additionally, long COVID can be a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504, and Section 1557 if it substantially limits one or more major life activities.
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Studies Find Increased Health Risks Resulting from COVID-19 Infection
COVID-19 causes harm to blood vessels through inflammation, impacting blood cells and blood flow. Because blood vessels carry oxygen and nutrients to all organ systems, damage to blood vessels has downstream impact on nerves, brain, heart, kidneys, and even the immune system. A growing number of studies have found COVID to be a risk factor for developing a range of other, seemingly unrelated illnesses, even in patients who recovered from mild courses of infection. For example, a large-scale longitudinal study found increased risk of 18 cardiovascular conditions, including heart failure, stroke, and blood clots, in patients with mild COVID-19 in the year following recovery from infection. Other studies have found increased risk of diabetes, early onset dementia, and a range of other conditions.
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Check the Updated CC COVID Dashboard
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Masks remain an important tool for mitigation, and we encourage you to wear a mask indoors when case numbers are high and we are more likely to encounter the virus. Check the CC dashboard to find out about local conditions and county COVID community levels to inform your masking choices. It provides quick access to COVID-19 metrics on campus, including daily and weekly COVID-19 testing numbers and positive test results. For questions regarding this dashboard, please contact Ben Moffitt in the Office of Institutional Planning and Effectiveness.
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Tests Available for Employees
Faculty and staff are encouraged to continue with screening testing and may obtain up to two tests from the Worner Desk each week, while supplies last. To help keep track of inventory, please fill out this test kit request form. All positive test results must be self-reported via Qualtrics.
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Ted Lindeman participates in a fitness class for retired adults and their spouses. They participate in an exercise class three days a week in the Adam F. Press Fitness Center gym. Photographed on Friday, Feb. 11, by Lonnie Timmons III / Colorado College.
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To easily access all things COVID, details of our COVID-19 response are broken down into categories here: Health; Mitigation and Campus Protocols; Testing and Quarantine; and When Off Campus. You will also find answers to frequently asked questions, as well as a listing of all campus messages. If you have additional concerns about COVID-19 or our campus response, direct them to: covid19@coloradocollege.edu.
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