GV COVID-19 campus data update

The GVSU community has had a cumulative total of 2,576 COVID-19 cases since Aug. 1. The university’s update for this brief was from Friday, March 12.  

Through testing results this past week, GVSU’s Virus Action team have so far reported 43 current active cases including 2 members of faculty, 2 staff member, 10 on-campus students, 19 “off-campus Ottawa” students, 9 “off-campus Kent” students and 2 “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 61,569 tests overall since August 21, for a cumulative positivity rate of 1.35% 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.

The Virus Action Team remind students to stay safe amid slight rise in cases

In the past week GVSU has seen a slight uptick of COVID-19 cases, however, the overall number of cases on campus is still low.

The weather is getting warmer, so the Virus Action Team took this opportunity to remind students to continue wearing face masks and social distancing when outside with others. Students who have received the vaccine are still required to follow these guidelines.

The Virus Action Team also advised against travel during this time because it is one of the highest risk activities in contracting a variant of COVID-19. One of the locations with the highest variant rates is Florida. For those traveling, they urge students to follow the CDC and GVSU travel guidelines.

GV leadership team testifies in Lansing 

Grand Valley State University Student Senate Vice President for External Relations Joe Pagel joined President Philomena V. Mantella and Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees Susan Jandernoa to testify at a legislative panel at the Capital. The team from GVSU virtually testified at the meeting of the higher education appropriations subcommittee of the House of Representatives.

At the March 11 meeting, Mantella brought the subcommittee’s attention to GVSU’s recent performance and asked the committee to focus on Michigan’s education gap.

Pagel gave the student perspective in his presentation to the committee by speaking on the challenge some students experience to pay tuition when the cost continues to rise. He used the Laker Line as an example of success that can come with the collaboration of the government and the university.