News Briefs 11/1/21

Audrey Whitaker, News Editor

GV COVID-19 campus data update

The GVSU community has had a cumulative total of 4,001 cases since Aug. 1, 2020. The university’s update for this brief was from Friday, Oct. 29.

Through testing results this past week, GVSU’s Virus Action team have so far reported 81 current active cases including six faculty members, three staff members, 15 on-campus students, 22 “off-campus Ottawa” students, 25 “off-campus Kent” students and 10 “off-campus other” students 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.

Vaccination: GVSU encourages all students, faculty and staff to receive the COVID-19 vaccination as soon as possible. All students, faculty and staff are required to be fully vaccinated, barring a medical or religious exemption or postponement. According to the COVID-19 data dashboard, 80% vaccination rate in the GVSU community is required to reach herd immunity and minimal virus transmission.

Currently, approximately 81% of students report being fully vaccinated, while approximately 83% of faculty and staff reports being fully vaccinated.

There are currently 2,095 students and 141 faculty/staff with approved vaccination exemptions.

Testing and Incidence: GVSU’s own testing program has performed 103,061 tests overall since Aug. 1, 2020, for a cumulative positivity rate of 1.9% from the latest update as of last week. A total of 1,501 tests were performed over the last seven days.

“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.

GV named Green College in Princeton Review

The Princeton Review Guide to Green Colleges: 2022 Edition named Grand Valley State University on a list of 420 colleges. This is the 12th year that GVSU has been included in the guide.

The list is based on a review of 840 colleges. According to the Princeton Review website, the ranking was based on school-reported data and student opinion, collected via survey. The guide includes schools that demonstrate a high quality of life for students that is both healthy and sustainable, prepare students for citizenship and employment in sustainability and has environmentally responsible policies.