GV COVID-19 campus data update

The Grand Valley State University community has had a cumulative total of 7,333 cases since Aug. 1, 2020. The university’s update for this brief was from Thursday, March 24.

Through testing results this past week, GVSU’s Virus Action team have so far reported 48 current active cases including three faculty members, three staff members, nine on-campus students, 18 “off-campus Ottawa” students, 12 “off-campus Kent” students and three “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 10-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 87% of students report being fully vaccinated, while approximately 93% of faculty and staff reports being fully vaccinated.

There are currently 2,214 students and 139 faculty/staff with approved vaccination exemptions.

Testing and Incidence: GVSU’s own testing program has performed 129,822 tests overall since Aug. 1, 2020, for a cumulative positivity rate of 1.53% from the latest update as of last week. A total of 783 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 receives federal funding to expand applied Medical Device Institute

Grand Valley State University recently received $1 million in federal appropriations to provide new technologies for its applied Medical Device Institute (aMDI). 

aMDI was established in 2015 to serve as a non-instructional unit of the Padnos College of Engineering and Computing.

United States Representative Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) requested and received the funding through the 2022 Consolidated Appropriations Act signed by President Biden on March 15. 

GVSU President Philomena V. Mantella said Meijer’s leadership helps the university by assisting it in its mission to better serve the community. 

Brent Nowak, the executive director of aMDI, told GVNext the funds will help aMDI to work on projects from medical device developers and allow the university to make a broader impact on medical device technology.