August 28, 2020
Dear Reed students, faculty, and staff:
I write to you with our weekly update on the Indicators for Risk Assessment from the COVID-19 Risk Assessment Group.
Campus Health: Our overall assessment is that campus health is stable. We have identified one (1) new positive COVID-19 case since our weekly summary was sent to you last Friday. Since we started testing on campus in August, we have received 1,364 COVID-19 test results that resulted in four (4) positive cases. The college continues to track the number of COVID-19 cases on this web page, where you can also read the protocol regarding notifications to the community about COVID-19 positive cases.
Public Health: The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) dashboard tells us that positive cases continue to be on the wane. On August 19, Multnomah County, where Reed College resides, reported the "county may be on the verge of a plateau in the COVID-19 pandemic." We ask you to not let your guard down--we must remain diligent in following public health protocols to continue this trend.
Community Compliance with Preventative Practices: Overall this week, we assess the compliance with preventative practices is high. Our first weekly survey, which seeks to measure our on-campus community's adherence to important public health guidelines, was completed by 630 of you. Your responses were informative: thank you. We are pleased to report that 92.9% respondents reported they observed people in shared spaces on campus wearing face coverings properly "most of the time" or "all the time." We appreciated hearing from the 44 of you who had recommendations of where more personal protective equipment (PPE) and cleaning supplies are needed. In the past week, we were able to address all but two of those concerns expressed. On this note, we point you to this communication that was sent to faculty and staff in early August regarding how to access PPE and cleaning supplies.
In the weekly survey, many of you asked for help in how to tell someone to properly follow public health guidance, like mask wearing. We hear you and by next week we will provide sample scripts to the community.
This week the average daily completion rate of the Daily Health Check was 1,116 and 97% were issued a green GO message every day. Those who received a STOP message have been in contact with HR or HCC.
More than 68% of our campus community members have completed the COVID-19 Prevention and Policy Training. If you haven't completed the training, today is your day.
Community safety reported that we have seen a steady decline in the number of visitors on campus who have had to be reminded that the campus is closed, although we expect that there will always be a few. Compliance with our requirement for people to wear name tags or ID is high, including among arriving students; this enhances everyone's ability to be on campus with a sense of safety. THANK YOU!
Campus Capacity: The most important news in the area of campus capacity this week is we announced a major expansion of our testing strategy. We take this opportunity to remind people that while this expansion will reduce the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19, we all have the individual responsibility to continue to follow public health guidance to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
On a final note, we share with you that the Reed College Orientation 2020 team conducted a COVID-19 Response Q&A for Parents session. The recorded session is available for viewing if you are interested.
If you have questions, please send an email to the COVID-19 Risk Assessment Group at coronavirusquestions@reed.edu.
Sincerely,
Mandy Heaton
Public Affairs
Reporting on behalf of the COVID-19 Risk Assessment Group