On Monday, September 21st, Elon University moved to Level 3 – High Alert due to the number of cases within the student body. In a release on the University’s Ready & Resilient site, They have put in place the protocols identified in the Alert System.
We ask everyone to continue to follow the three w’s: Wear a Face Mask, Wait 6 feet apart, and wash your hands regularly or use hand sanitizer. Below is an excerpt from their information post with the protocols being activated. To read the full post, click here.
From Elon University:
All members of the campus community are asked to adjust their daily activities to increase safety. Mitigation strategies will be targeted to where cases are active, but actions each of us take immediately may help avoid a full shelter-in-place and lockdown of the campus. Contact tracing tells us that the spread has been mainly through close social interactions among individuals and small groups without wearing masks or proper distancing. There is no evidence that the surge in cases is due to large parties or to interactions in classrooms, campus facilities or dining halls. As per the alert matrix, extensive testing and contract tracing have been utilized over the past few days to identify students and close contacts, who were immediately moved to isolation, resulting in a large increase in the number of students currently in quarantine. Thankfully the university’s random weekly surveillance testing has not indicated a similar-sized increase.
- Testing
- The Cone Health mobile testing lab will be on campus today for testing of 300 people who have had indirect social, academic, residential, and team-based contact with the positive cases. In addition, this week’s random surveillance testing will include more than 400 mail-in and onsite tests.
- Four teams with the highest incidence of positive cases will be re-tested this week and some have been moved to quarantine pending results of tests that have already been conducted. All athletics workouts, training and operations remain suspended until further notice.
- Academics
- Out of an abundance of caution, we will temporarily transition a few academic course sections with a significant proportion of positive cases to full remote instruction; faculty and students in those classes have been notified of the change.
- Other courses should continue their current instructional model. All classes should continue to wear masks over their mouth and nose, discourage touching of masks, and wipe down all surfaces before and after classes.
- We urge faculty to discuss all of these changes with students to ensure full understanding and deep consideration of the actions we all need to take going forward.
- Residential Life & Student Life
- Effective immediately, while we remain in High Alert, all residence halls will be closed to visitors, including Elon students who live in other on- or off-campus housing. Students must wear masks in all kitchens and common areas outside their own rooms.
- Students in residence halls with shared floor bathrooms have been assigned to specific bathrooms and fixtures until further notice.
- The Office of Student Involvement will be reviewing all university sponsored and student events to verify that the events should proceed and that all safety precautions and policies will be followed.
- Dining
- All members of campus should ensure social distancing during eating and may need to consider alternate eating locations as the weather gets colder.
- Elon Dining is prepared, if needed, for shifts in their plans, including if we decided to shift to all grab-and-go food service in the future.
- Operations & Policies
- Campus operations will continue as is, as will current in-person and remote services and operations. No additional shifts to remote services are deemed necessary at this time.
- We urge staff to discuss all of these changes with students to ensure full understanding and deep consideration of the actions we all need to take going forward.
- The university will continue monitor and strictly enforce policies related to gathering sizes, both on- and off-campus.
- Personal Actions
- All members of the campus community are asked to redouble efforts around the following:
- Wearing masks at all times
- Avoiding social gatherings that involve removing masks
- Physically distancing
- Washing hands regularly
- Performing their personal health checks at least twice daily using the Ready & Resilient Health Screening app.
- All members of the campus community are asked to redouble efforts around the following: