ALISA OPPENHEIMER
News Editor
This week in COVID, while the rate of positive COVID cases is decreasing in speed, the number of cases is still steadily rising every day.
On Monday, Sept. 7, Fredonia’s total number of positive cases was at 73.
By Tuesday our positive cases went up by two, reaching 75 positive cases.
Wednesday, we were at 77.
Thursday we hit 79, and by Friday we reached 83 cases.
Sunday that number hit 87, and to start off this week, we’re currently at 89 total positive cases for the fall semester.
Compared to last week, some would say this is a good thing, and while that may be true, we shouldn’t get our hopes up too quickly.
With the number of positive cases still increasing even just by one to three per day, we are all still at risk.
“Students still must be vigilant and take necessary precautions,” said a representative of Enrollment and Student Services.
With this, the campus community has been recently informed of various changes to our preventional system, which were put in place to better inform faculty and students about the spread of COVID-19 on campus.
In a campus-wide email from President Stephen Kolison on Sept. 11, he said that students and faculty will now be receiving a campus update each Thursday from him.
“In keeping with my intention to inform you of developments centered around COVID-19 and other important matters pertaining to our institution, I plan to send you a weekly update. Beginning next week, I will send the campus community a message every Thursday until the threat that COVID-19 poses to our institution is no longer imminent,” he said.
Kolison also mentioned his meeting on Sept. 6 with SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras, and other campus leaders regarding the current status of COVID-19.
“Together, we presented the chancellor a COVID-19 status report and our plans to manage the increase in our numbers. We posed questions about the metrics being used by SUNY and sought clarification on the policies around managing COVID-19 at universities in the state. Chancellor Malatras provided the clarity we sought and we will use this clarification to inform our decisions moving forward.”
In that same email, he gave more details on our COVID status and discussed the addition of a temporary assistant to the Student Health Center.
“We received good news yesterday concerning the latest round of pool testing. The sample of 64 students tested Monday came back with zero positive cases. The campus is randomly selecting 100 students for each round of pool testing, but if they are not available — i.e. they are living at home — they are not tested and they are not replaced in the pool to maintain the authenticity of a random sample,” Kolison wrote.
“We continue to ramp up testing on campus by conducting two rounds of pool tests weekly. The tests are mandatory for on-campus students and students off-campus in the nearby community. We are also hiring a temporary worker to assist the Health Center with the testing,”
In efforts to provide additional information, Fredonia also updated their COVID-19 dashboard.
The webpage is now split into five separate charts: positive case information, currently in isolation, currently in quarantine, PCR testing on campus, pool testing on campus and employee information.
Each chart contains data specific to that particular category of the campus community.
Some of the vital information we’re only just receiving through these charts include the distinction between positive cases on and off-campus, the distinction between students isolated or quarantined on and off-campus and much more about testing and employee cases.
Although there has been an escalation in communication regarding our campus’ COVID-19 status, some have reported the chart to be confusing and a little all-over-the-place.
Hopefully, this week Fredonia’s newly implemented efforts will serve as an aid in decreasing the spread of COVID-19 here at Fredonia.
For more information, students can visit the Fredonia COVID-19 dashboard or reach out to Enrollment and Student Services.