GV COVID-19 campus data update

The GVSU community has had a cumulative total of 2,939 COVID-19 cases since Aug. 1. The university’s update for this brief was from Friday, April 16.

Through testing results this past week, GVSU’s Virus Action team have so far reported 193 current active cases including one member of faculty, eight staff members, 29 on-campus students, 111 “off-campus Ottawa” students, 40 “off-campus Kent” students and four “off-campus other” student with active COVID-19 cases.

“Current active cases” is the count of positive cases reported to the Virus Action Team over the past ten days.  This is an estimate of those currently in isolation, assuming a ten-day symptomatic period following the reporting of a positive test result. Actual periods of isolation are specific to the individual and determined by the county health department.

Testing and Incidence: GVSU’s own testing program has performed 80,474 tests overall since August 21, for a cumulative positivity rate of 1.97% from the latest update as of last week.

“GV Surveillance” includes the GV/Spectrum administered programs of randomized testing, regular testing of high-risk groups, and invited testing of individuals connected to potential clusters. A calendar is available. “GV Total” includes surveillance testing plus all symptomatic/exposure tests administered by Spectrum.

Professor of mathematics featured in National Publication

Robert Talbert is a professor in the Mathematics department at GVSU. He wrote an article titled, “Flipped Learning Can Be a Key to Transforming Teaching and Learning Post-Pandemic.” This article ended up being published by EdSurge, an education publication.

The article is about the concept of “flipped learning” which is an approach to learning which concerns the structure of education. This idea involves assigning digital lecture videos for students to watch at home to make more time for interactive activities during class. Talbert references the context of the pandemic to support his argument for flipped learning.

Michigan temporarily pauses distribution of Johnson & Johnson vaccine

The FDA and CDC have recently released a statement that recommends pausing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine due to potential health risks involved. This decision to recommend the pause was made after six people in the U.S. developed a severe type of blood clot after receiving their dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Cases of blood clots from the vaccine are rare as 6.8 million doses of the vaccine have already been administered, about 200,000 of which were in Michigan.

GVSU’s on-campus vaccine clinic originally planned on distributed Johnson & Johnson vaccines after they were supplied with 1,700 does. The University switched to the Pfizer vaccine following the Ottawa County Department of Public Health’s decision to follow the CDC’s guidance.