COVID cases at Stevens have spiked considerably in the past few weeks. All positive cases are reported on Stevens’ COVID-19 Dashboard and in weekly updates emailed to the student body and Stevens community.
Currently, only unvaccinated students with exemptions are required to undergo weekly COVID testing, which happen on Wednesday in Gateway North’s Corcoran Room. However, students are also selected for randomized testing on Wednesdays. On-campus tests have been, and continue to be, conducted by Bergen New Bridge Medical Center (BNBMC) through the Rutgers’ RUCDR SARS-CoV-2 saliva testing method. The required tests, if not covered by the individual’s health insurance, are paid for by Stevens. Students who are fully vaccinated and feel like they have virus symptoms can now get tested upon request.
This article will provide a visual guide for the cases seen on campus so far this semester. The graphs included in this article are solely based on data collected from the Stevens website as well as weekly emails sent out to the Stevens Community. As of the time of this article’s publication, and based on Stevens’ COVID-19 Dashboard, students and employees are 98% and 96%, respectively, vaccinated for the virus. Stevens currently does not provide data regarding the vaccination status of those testing positive. Furthermore, there is no data being provided regarding the reinfection rate of those at Stevens.
The first few weeks of the Fall 2021 semester saw a similar number of new COVID cases each week among students. In October, cases significantly fell until they reached zero, and then spiked again in recent weeks to as high as 16 and 17 new cases among students. However, fully vaccinated students, faculty, and staff were not required to be tested throughout this semester apart from the randomized testing implemented October 6, 2021. Therefore, the true rate of COVID-19 cases on Stevens campus is unclear.
Among Stevens employees, only eleven total cases have been reported so far for the Fall 2021 semester, with a five-week period of no cases starting in mid-October and ending mid-November.
According to the Stevens COVID-19 Dashboard, 8,728 people comprised the Stevens population between August 23 and September 12. After September 12, 9,250 people were considered community members. Using these numbers, as well as the new case counts per week, the percentage of new cases among the Stevens population each week can be tabulated and visualized. As of the last email sent to the Stevens community, 0.184% of its members have tested positive for COVID.
As a whole, Stevens has confirmed 90 new cases of COVID among its population, with 79 cases representing students and the other 11 coming from employees, since August 23, 2021. With the recent increase in cases, we can only hope that the trend will not continue in the final weeks of the semester.
Be First to Comment