Health Services update for February 18, 2022

Mark Parisi, director of counseling and health services, sent the following update to employees today (February 18, 2022).

Hello students,

As you may be aware, COVID-19 infection rates are dropping in many areas of the country, ours included. This is a hopeful sign. However, we still need to remain vigilant and continue to take steps to keep the rates down. Vaccinating a high percentage of our population is key to helping reduce transmission, and perhaps most importantly, to reduce severe illness in those who may become infected. If you have concerns regarding the COVID-19 vaccination, please read the NYS Department of Health’s FAQs page, which includes guidance on how to separate myths from facts. It also describes ways to avoid becoming a source for vaccine misinformation.

Rates: You can always consult the COVID-19 Dashboard for the number of cases among our campus community. This week, there were 4 positive student cases and 4 positive employee cases reported, and the total number of cases considered active is 7.

Boosters: If you are eligible, remember to sign up for one of our COVID-19 booster clinics on March 3 and April 7. As announced on January 19, students are required to have the booster by June 30 in order to register for Fall 2022 courses (unless they were already granted a medical or religious exemption). If you have questions about boosters, please review the New York State Department of Health webpage. If you’ve already been boosted and have not sent us a photo of your COVID-19 vaccination card, please email it to covidresults@strose.edu so we can add that to our records.

Surveillance testing: Given the current numbers in the county and our campus community, this upcoming week will be the last week of surveillance testing. After next week, our group testing will go back to testing just those individuals who are unvaccinated and anyone who wants to test. As always, anyone with symptoms can test with Health Services. If you are interested in testing even when you are not selected (and do not have symptoms), please sign up here. (Please note: This link changes each week.)

If you have tested positive in the last 90 days and haven’t let us know, please email us at covidresults@strose.edu and do not plan to test again with us. And don’t forget to consult the restart website for more information on our COVID-19 procedures.

Sincerely,

Mark Parisi

Director of Counseling and Health Services