February 12, 2020
Dear students, faculty, and staff,
I write to you with our weekly update from the COVID-19 Risk Assessment Group. We have highlighted essential points in yellow.
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.
Changes to Multnomah County's COVID-19 Risk Level
This week, the state of Oregon announced that Multnomah County, where Reed College resides, was downgraded from the "Extreme Risk" to the "High Risk" category, based on recent COVID-19 activity. The COVID-19 Risk Assessment Group has been working to assess the impact of this change on our campus; for more information, please see today's communication on the subject.
Updated Face Covering Guidance
Reed College's COVID-19 guidance has been updated to include more details about how to select and use a face covering that is most effective against COVID-19. For more information, please visit our webpage, or review the CDCs recommendations on how to select the most effective mask.
Weekly Surveillance Testing Participation
This week, we conducted 1678 COVID-19 surveillance tests on campus. Note that testing numbers may be slightly lower this week due to the cancellation of surveillance testing today (Friday), because our contracted testing team was unable to travel to campus in the snow and ice.
Students who live on campus had a participation rate of 94% while students who live off campus but access campus regularly had a participation rate of 87%.
Below, we've summarized this week's participation among on campus students by residence hall. Once a residence hall achieves 90% or higher participation, their common areas will be reopened the following Monday. Congrats to this week's new and final additions to this group (highlighted below), and to the residents of Griffin, McKinley, and Woodbridge, our residence hall winners this week! Residents should hear from their Area Coordinator this week with instructions on how to claim a treat.
In order to best protect the Reed community, it is imperative that all community members participate in surveillance testing each week. For more information about the Reed COVID-19 surveillance testing program, please visit our website here.
| Building | Common Areas Open? | % | Building | Common Areas Open? | % | |
| Anna Mann | Yes | 96% | McKinley | Yes | 100% | |
| Aspen | Yes | 95% | Naito | Yes | 96% | |
| Bidwell | Yes | 94% | Old Dorm Block | Yes | 97% | |
| Birchwood Apts. | N/A | 81% | Reed College Apts. | N/A | 86% | |
| Bragdon | Yes | 93% | Scholz | Yes | 87% | |
| Canyon, Garden, Farm Houses* | Yes | 79% | Sequoia | Yes | 94% | |
| Chittick | Yes | 90% | Sitka | Yes | 95% | |
| Foster | Yes | 85% | Sullivan | Yes | 98% | |
| Griffin | Yes | 100% | Trillium | Yes | 97% | |
| Language Houses* | Yes | 94% | Woodbridge | Yes | 100% |
*Houses will have common areas reopened when they individually reach 90% participation or when their group achieves 90% participation.
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.