After a two-week long shift to online schooling that began on the first day of the Spring 2022 semester, January 18, in-person classes resumed on January 31. Stevens’ decision to have a remote period was announced in an email sent out on January 7, citing a rise in COVID-19 cases. While the number of national cases are beginning to trend downward, COVID-19 continues to be an ongoing global threat.
COVID-19 ON CAMPUS
Between January 24 to 30, 33 new cases were reported among students and employees. During the month of December, Stevens reported a total of 192 new cases of COVID-19, with 130 of the cases being from students. Since the start of data collection on August 31, there have been a total of 492 cases reported at the time this article was written. Positive test results for COVID-19 should be reported to Student Health Services at 201-216-5678.
In an announcement sent on January 24, Stevens noted that they “strongly recommend wearing an N95, KN95s, surgical masks, or a combination of a cloth mask with a surgical mask.” They continued by stating cloth masks alone do not appear to provide enough protection against the Omicron variant, and that surgical masks will be made available on campus.
In an email sent out on January 7, Stevens also announced they would “increase required random testing of faculty, staff and students during the Spring 2022 semester.” Due to the two weeks of online learning, the residence halls were not opened until January 27. Stevens announced that residential students will only pay for the time they were in their housing to compensate for the time off campus.
COVID-19 OFF CAMPUS
In late December, Hoboken announced a mask mandate in all public indoor locations that is still ongoing. The mandate is said to be lifted when “the positivity rate for the State of New Jersey reaches 5 percent for a one-week average or when the daily positive cases in Hoboken fall below the weekly average as compared to the first week of November 2021 prior the surge of the Omicron variant, whichever is first.” Johns Hopkins reports that New Jersey’s current positivity rate is just below 11%.
According to a press release from the City of Hoboken on January 3, a total of 1,599 residents tested positive for COVID-19 from December 1 to 31, “the largest one month total since the pandemic began in March 2020.” In his newsletter sent on January 28, City Councilmen Phil Cohen reported that Hoboken University Medical Center “is now hospitalizing 26 people with COVID-19. Eight are Hoboken Residents with four being unvaccinated.”
Cases have recently been trending downward in many states across the country, including New Jersey and New York. NJ.gov reports that the current statewide rate of transmission is 0.54, which is an indication of how many new infections will occur from one infected individual. A number below 1 indicates a decline in total infections. During a COVID-19 briefing on January 24, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy expressed a cautious optimism, stating “we want to say no one should be complacent here. Even though these numbers are trending very positively – and they are – they’re still higher than anything we had encountered even through last winter’s surge and the Delta variant surge from last summer.”
Many local colleges, including NJIT, Rutgers, and Columbia, took the same approach to online schooling as Stevens did, having the first 2 weeks of the semester held remotely. Nevertheless, NYU began their Spring 2022 semester on January 24 with in-person classes available.
COVID-19 AT LARGE
Our World In Data reports 73.4 million COVID-19 cases in the U.S., and over 375 million cases globally, which has led to a worldwide total of 5.66 million deaths. The Centers for Disease Control informs that the Omicron variant is still dominant, responsible for 99.99% of the COVID-19 cases reported during the week of January 16. In the U.S., The CDC states the community transmission rates are ‘high’ and they still recommend wearing masks that have at least two layers of washable material. Public health officials continue to express the need for individuals to get vaccinated, including U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy who explains “our vaccines are still working very well to keep people out of the hospital and to save their lives.” The World Health Organization reports that over 9.8 billion vaccine doses have been administered globally.
Be First to Comment