GV COVID-19 campus data update

The Grand Valley State University community has had a cumulative total of 4,411 cases since Aug. 1, 2020. The university’s update for this brief was from Saturday, Nov. 27.

Through testing results this past week, GVSU’s Virus Action team have so far reported 155 current active cases including eight faculty members, 14 staff members, 17 on-campus students, 55 “off-campus Ottawa” students, 46 “off-campus Kent” students and 15 “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 10 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, an 80% vaccination rate in the GVSU community is required to reach herd immunity and minimal virus transmission.

Currently, approximately 83% of students report being fully vaccinated, while approximately 84% of faculty and staff reports being fully vaccinated.

There are currently 2,139 students and 145 faculty/staff with approved vaccination exemptions.

Testing and Incidence: GVSU’s own testing program has performed 110,318 tests overall since Aug. 1, 2020, for a cumulative positivity rate of 1.47% from the latest update as of last week. A total of 1,538 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.

VPSA candidates visit GV

Candidates for the Vice President of Student Affairs (VPSA) are expected to visit the Allendale campus throughout the week of Nov. 29 as part of the interview process, according to an email to the campus community from the VPSA search committee on Nov. 22.

Four final candidates for the position will present 20-minute presentations on key strategies to address trends in student affairs related to student wellbeing, followed by an open question and answer session. All GVSU students, faculty and staff are able to attend and participate in the open sessions.

The sessions will be held in Kirkhof Center room 2204 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Nov. 29, Nov. 30, Dec. 1 and Dec. 3. The GVSU community can also attend via zoom when logged into a GVSU account.