December 18, 2020
Dear students, faculty, and staff,
I write to you with our weekly update from the COVID-19 Risk Assessment Group. In addition to this brief summary, we encourage you to read this morning's message from Reed President Audrey Bilger for more information on our plans for the Spring 2021 semester.
New Cases at Reed
Since our last update, we have identified no new confirmed COVID-19 cases at Reed. We continue to report all Reed-associated COVID-19 cases online within 24 hours of confirmation, found in the "Total Cases" section of the dashboard.
Start of term testing for the Spring 2021 semester
The sign up for start-of-term testing appointments is now available. All individuals who will be accessing campus during the Spring 2021 term are asked to complete a COVID-19 test in the two weeks prior to the start of the semester.
Following start-of-term testing, all individuals accessing campus should continue to test each week. This means that those who complete their start-of-term test during the week of January 11-15 should also sign up for a time to test on January 20 or 21. Routine surveillance testing for the semester will begin on January 25; more details on our expanded testing plan will be shared with the Reed community in the coming weeks.
State and National Trends
While concerned about the impact of record-setting COVID-19 activity across the country, we are encouraged by the demonstrated success of Oregon's statewide prevention measures. As of December 18, Oregon's COVID-19 positivity rate was reported as one of the lowest in the nation, behind only two other states and the District of Columbia.
We ask you to please help us keep Reed a safe place to live, work, and study by participating in surveillance testing, the weekly risk assessment survey, and, for those both local and remote, all other essential response measures on and off campus.
If you have questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to the COVID-19 Risk Assessment Group at coronavirusquestions@reed.edu.
Sincerely,
Madison Riethman, MPH, CPH
COVID-19 Response Coordinator and Health Project Manager
Health & Counseling Services
Reporting on behalf of the COVID-19 Risk Assessment Group
PS: As a reminder, you can track all our COVID-19 communications to members of the Reed Community here.