Public Health update: Aug. 10, 2021

The following message was shared with the Ohio University community on Aug. 10, 2021.

Dear OHIO community members,

Like many of you, I am looking forward to having students, faculty, and staff on our campuses in just two weeks. We are doing everything we can to make this fall as normal as possible while being vigilant about necessary precautions to help keep our University – and the communities where we are located – safe.

Last week the University reinstated masking indoors for all students, faculty, staff, and visitors on all OHIO campuses. This decision is consistent with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and was recommended by the Athens City-County Health Department. Most of our peer institutions have made the same decision, including Ohio State University, Miami University, and many others.

OHIO has reinstated universal masking indoors for precisely the same reason we removed the mask requirement in June: because the COVID-19 environment, and thus the risk of transmission, has significantly changed. OHIO Chief Medical Affairs Officer Dr. Ken Johnson and I review local, state, national, and international data every day, as well as recommendations from the CDC, the state, and our local health departments. In response to these data, we make changes when warranted. In recent weeks the case numbers were already increasing in every county with an OHIO campus, including Athens, even before we have significant numbers of students on campus.

In June, the CDC recommended vaccinated people could go without masks because case rates were going down. The Delta variant has since taken hold and is spreading quickly, in large part due to slowing vaccination rates. Case rates, hospitalizations, and deaths are again on the rise. The CDC has recommended masks indoors for everyone in the face of this challenge, and OHIO has made the decision to follow this guidance because it is critical to controlling the spread of disease across our campuses this fall.

What went into this decision?

As with every decision the University has made since the start of the pandemic, we consulted with local experts and considered state and national recommendations. We consulted with leaders from other state universities and the Inter-University Council of Ohio. Dr. Johnson and I meet weekly -- sometimes daily -- with ACCHD to discuss the national and state data and how it affects our campus communities. Here are some of the many things we considered when making this important public health decision:

• Most U.S. states are experiencing substantial or high levels of community transmission fueled by the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.
• Every county with an OHIO campus is experiencing substantial or high transmission.
• Wastewater testing in the city of Athens is already showing an increase in viral load.
• The state positivity rate is again increasing, suggesting more undiagnosed infection.
• The return of students to the Athens campus will significantly increase the population of Athens. We anticipate welcoming more unvaccinated students to campus than there were total students on campus last academic year. 
• Students are traveling from all over the state, nation and world to Athens; some will arrive infected. 
• Our vaccination rates among students are far too low to rely on vaccine alone to prevent disease. 
• The reproductive number of the Delta variant is 5 – more than twice the original variant. Spread is happening much more rapidly. 
• If we have widespread disease, it could impact the activities on our campuses as people are required, by law, to isolate if infected and quarantine if exposed and not vaccinated. We are hoping to prevent this as much as possible. 

Our goal is to make sure that we have a close to normal and fully engaged semester. The reinstatement of masks is critical to maintaining as close to normal operations as possible.

Strategies in place for a successful fall semester

Our experiences last year during the peak of the pandemic provided us the opportunity to hone our systems for keeping disease in check on campus. We are confident that we will again succeed in minimizing spread and disruption to campus activities, even with the advent of the Delta variant and the potential for breakthrough infection. We will be using the following strategies to curb potential outbreaks: 

• Ready access to COVID-19 vaccinations on campus. Every person who gets vaccinated against COVID-19 helps us move toward safer campuses where restrictions are less necessary.
• Required asymptomatic testing upon arrival for all residential students, regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status. Weekly testing of unvaccinated students, faculty, and staff.
• Quarantine and isolation housing will be available for all residential students. 
• Support for all students, faculty, and staff who must quarantine or isolate, via our COVID Campus Liaisons. 
• Required indoor masking for all students, faculty, and staff. 
• Required physical distancing in classrooms for everyone, and in all other indoor public spaces for unvaccinated individuals.

These layered public health strategies are necessary to prevent outbreaks.

Important reminders

• Students, faculty, and staff are required to pick a COVID-19 Testing Pathway by today.
• Students who select the Vaccination Pathway and upload their vaccine cards by 11:59 on Thursday night will be entered into the Bobcats Get Vaxxed drawing to win a scholarship valued at full in-state tuition this fall semester. 
• Students who are moving into residential housing will be asked to take an asymptomatic test within 24 hours of arrival. The testing center is located on campus and the tests are noninvasive. 
• If you test positive for COVID-19, experience symptoms or have a known exposure, follow the OHIO COVID-19 Protocol. 

It’s up to all of us to create a safe and healthy campus

The number one thing you can do to help keep our Bobcat community safe is to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Until enough of our campus community is vaccinated, we are going to have to turn to masking when community transmission is substantial or high to disrupt disease transmission. Schedule a vaccine online or get one on campus at one of many upcoming campus clinics. 

The vaccines are safe and effective at preventing severe sickness, hospitalization, and death, including from the Delta variant. All three COVID-19 vaccines available in the U.S. have been thoroughly tested and were developed using science that has been around for decades. These vaccines have undergone the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history and are free and available for everyone in the U.S. at no cost. 

It is my sincere hope that we can get enough people vaccinated and low enough disease incidence on campus that we don’t need to take the extra steps of masks and testing. Each of us can help get us to that place. If we all work together, we can push past this. Let’s mask up, vax up, and create the campus experience that we all want.  

Dr. Gillian Ice
Special Assistant to the President for Public Health Operations