Campus Update – Matrix Scoring, Community Expectations

The continued efforts by each member of our campus community to do their part to further reduce COVID-19 risk on campus really exemplifies the ONE ECU mission. Our risk level is still ELEVATED but is improving steadily. The COVID Coordination Committee feels we need to continue with no change in Community Expectations to ensure this trend continues. Wearing masks indoors, increasing vaccination rates and testing the unvaccinated weekly are critical to decreasing transmissibility and campus risk.

Campus case and positivity rates continue to drop, but transmissibility remains at high levels. Transmissibility is expected to decrease if case and positivity rates continue to decline. Recent increases in vaccination rates have also reduced our risk level. Mask compliance remains good but reports and observations of noncompliance have increased slightly. The COVID Coordination Committee scoring group felt that campus has been compliant overall with mask wearing. However, we cannot afford to get complacent now that we seem to have consistently reduced on campus virus spread.

Pitt County’s case rate per thousand residents continues to improve but remained around the lower to upper end of the moderate risk range over the last 7-day and 14-day periods, respectively. In contrast, our campus case rate has moved from high/very high to moderate over the last 14-day cycle to low over the last 7-day period. The higher case rates in the county and region are impacting Vidant Medical Center’s capacity, which is still a significant concern.

Quarantine and isolation space availability continues to improve and is now consistently above 98% availability this past week. We remain concerned about local hospital capacity and on campus case rates and transmissibility. Fortunately, our local community risk level remains MODERATE and improving with case rates and hospitalizations beginning to decline slightly in Pitt County and across the state. At 1-2%, our campus positivity rate is well below the county and state rates of 9-11%.

Mako, our testing vendor, began testing students last week. The combined efforts of Student Health Services and the vendor will help us meet our objective of testing all unvaccinated students on a weekly basis. Employee testing will start this week with an initial goal of testing each unvaccinated employee every other week with the expectation of increasing frequency when capacity becomes available.

Thank you, Pirates!  Stay strong and consistent with our risk reduction efforts. Let’s encourage one another to get vaccinated, mask up indoors, and get tested as soon as feasible after being contacted.

GO PIRATES!

– Sara Lilley, Interim Assistant Vice Chancellor for HR, Talent Management, Co-Chair, COVID Coordination Committee
– Bill Koch, Associate Vice Chancellor, Campus Safety, Co-Chair, COVID Coordination Committee