Weekly Testing Update - April 8, 2021

Dear FSU Community,

The University administered 783 COVID19 tests on Monday and Tuesday this week, resulting in five positives. Contact tracing of close contacts began immediately. All of our latest data is now viewable on our COVID19 Dashboard.

As you can see, our positive numbers remain elevated, though thankfully they have fallen from last week. We currently have 23 students who are in 7-day quarantine. It remains crucial that everyone follow the strictest safety standards if we are to finish out this semester without moving to fully remote learning.

Please note: This will be my final Weekly Testing Update sent out on a Thursday. Starting next week, the Thursday e-mail will become a regular Friday e-mail. The extra day provides our Health Department staff and COVID Campus Analytics Team (CCAT) more time to complete contact tracing, follow up testing, and other measures so that we can present the most accurate data possible in each update.

Massachusetts expanded eligibility for vaccination appointments this week to anyone 55 or older, and anyone with 1 certain medical condition, including a BMI over 25. Everyone in the state over the age of 16 will be eligible to sign up for an appointment starting Monday, April 19^th. Regardless of whether or not you are currently eligible, we strongly encourage everyone to pre-register for your vaccination now, and the state will contact you when an appointment becomes available. If protecting yourself and those around you aren’t enough incentive to get the vaccine, I’ll also point out that once fully vaccinated, students and staff will no longer be required to quarantine when exposed.

Keep wearing your face masks indoors and outdoors, practicing social distancing and good hygiene, participating in COVID testing, and avoiding large gatherings all remain crucially important. We expect all of this whether or not you have been fully vaccinated. Monitor your health daily and if you are showing any symptoms, no matter how mild, you should contact the Health Center.

Stay safe,

Javier