Brennan LaBrie
Editor-In-Chief
The sharp rise in Covid-19 cases at Pacific Lutheran University in January has subsided, but February still saw a higher rate of positive cases than fall semester.
There were 138 resolved cases of Covid-19 reported on PLU’s Coronavirus webpage between Dec. 31 and Jan. 28. This built on 96 resolved cases between the start of the 2020-21 school year and the end of December, according to Shawn Thompson, Interim Director of Campus Safety, Associate Director of Campus Emergency Programs, and a member of the PLU Covid-19 Task Force.
Since Jan. 28, 47 cases have been resolved. This puts the total number of resolved cases for the school year at 281.
This data comes from PLU students and employees who tested positive at clinics run by the university or the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department — or self-reported — and were either on campus or were in close contact with people who were.
The jump in Covid cases in January was linked to the national surge of the Omicron variant that brought national case numbers to record heights, said Thompson. The travel involved in students returning to campus was another factor, said Francisco Aragón, PLU’s On-Site Covid Testing Coordinator.
“We saw trends go a little bit higher towards the beginning of the month, as we were coming back from break,” Aragón told The Mast at the rapid testing clinic in late January. “We’ve been seeing a little bit of a decrease in that as the month has progressed.”
Another factor behind the rise in positive results in the first half of January was an influx in people coming in for testing. While this resulted in more positive cases than ever before for PLU, they were still greatly outnumbered by negative cases, Aragón said.
“A lot of folks have been coming in and being proactive about their health,” Aragón said.
With Omicron numbers on the rise in late December, many universities, such as The University of Washington, opted to start off their new terms online, in order for students to get tested and receive booster shots before returning to campus.
PLU, however, decided to push on with in-person classes in J-Term for several reasons, according to Thompson. While large universities such as UW were set to commence full terms in which students take up to five classes (with larger class sizes), PLU’s J-Term sees a much smaller campus population. Many students study away or take the month off. Those who do attend classes on campus only take one, with some adding a PE course as well. In addition, class sizes are on average much smaller than those at state universities.
“That lower campus population just made it so much more manageable,” Thompson said of moving forward with in-person classes.
Plus, PLU had testing and quarantine processes firmly in place from the fall. The university had begun the year offering rapid testing clinics twice a week in the Anderson University Center, and had bumped that to four days a week in October. Testing for symptomatic students was offered all week at the Health Center, and several isolation options were available for those who tested positive: 11 rooms in South Hall, the entire first floor of Kreidler Hall, and an off-campus hotel reserved for isolation through the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Due to the lower campus population in J-Term, two rapid testing clinics were planned for each week. However, in early January the school quickly realized that more testing was needed, and quickly. Additional rapid testing hours were added in the weekend before students returned from winter break, and the clinic shifted to four or five days a week for January.
In addition, health officials were now recommending the use of higher-quality masks such as N95s and K-N95s to avoid the spread of the highly-contagious new variant. The university rushed to acquire a large quantity of these masks, which they distributed across campus departments, offices and residential halls.
Along with a boost in testing on campus, the quarantine effort on campus had to step up as well. This required an intensified collaboration between the task force and their partners in campus restaurants, custodial services, and hospitality services, who all worked together to furnish and sanitize rooms and feed students in isolation.
The university also partnered with Curative, a Covid-19 testing company, who set up shop in the Health Center Parking lot on February 9. Curative offers free PCR tests to the PLU community, Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m..
This partnership, along with the decreasing number of Covid cases since mid-January, allowed PLU to taper off their rapid testing schedule after going “heavy” for the first three weeks of February, according to Teri Phillips, PLU’s Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, and a member of the Covid Task Force.
PLU also announced in a Jan. 14 email that all members of the PLU community must receive a Covid Booster shot by Feb. 7, or within two weeks of their eligibility, in order to continue employment or enrollment. They had the option to complete an exemption form if they desired. A week later, the Task Force announced that the university was to go almost entirely online for the first week to allow people to get boosted and tested before returning to campus.
Phillips stressed the importance of PLU community members getting the booster shot to the university’s goals of keeping classes online, and students safe, for the rest of the semester.
“If you don’t have the booster shot, you are required to quarantine if you become a close contact,” Phillips said. “So there’s a risk there in having to miss classes and things like that, so it’s really important that everyone gets the booster.”
Even with Omicron cases falling nationwide, Phillips and Thompson advise students to remain cautious about their safety.
“Don’t ignore even minor symptoms,” Thompson said. “I think this is a really good time to recenter on ‘stay home if you’re sick.’ Things outside of the PLU community are really opening up and we have a lot more access to do things compared to where we were a year ago, but pay attention to what your body is telling you. If you’re sick, just stay home and keep everybody else safe and keep yourself healthy.”
Phillips summarized her advice succinctly:
“Get vaccinated. Get boosted when you’re eligible. Wear a good mask, be safe, be smart about your contacts with groups of individuals.”
For more information visit https://www.plu.edu/coronavirus/.
