The takeover continued as the sun disappeared behind the chapel on Duke University’s West Campus last Sunday.
Some masked underclass students enjoy reading in the grass, skateboarding in the quadrangle and generally enjoying the bright summer weather.
In the normal year, Fresh and Sophomores stick to the University’s nearest East Campus, while the West Campus has a large class of people and graduate programs.
But the first and second years live here now. As part of its plan to fight covid, the university only allowed new and sophomores to stay on campus for the fall semester, with about 3,000 students scattered throughout its dwellings, one per room.
With a rigorous weekly testing program featuring thousands of students, faculty and staff, these steps have helped keep Duke’s positive case low and could prove to be a model for other institutions hoping to avoid the future of universities across the country that feel uncontrollable. Erupted.
In late June, the Duke informed students that they would need to take the test before they could return to campus. In the initial round of more than 5,500 tests, 11 positive cases were found.
Steven Dallas, a third-year student in New York, was one of the test takers.
“Kovid realized what it meant to be a basic measure of how prevalent it was in the community, just went blind and all these people who arrived on campus from across the country and then didn’t know if they were sick,” says Dallas. Said. “It wouldn’t be a particularly good strategy.”
In addition to general warnings about masks and social distance, the Duke has limited all student gatherings to 10 or less – a stricter ban than the current Durham City rule. But the foundation of the Duke’s plan has always been tested, said Michael Schoenfeld, a spokesman for the university. “Clearly the more focused and frequently performed tests, the better information you have and the better ability you have to identify and address them before any kind of activity breaks out,” Schoenfeld said.
The university announced last month that it would conduct weekly surveillance tests for its students, faculty and staff. The most recent round saw 14,141 tests, with 8 returning positive.
Since the beginning of August, Duke has conducted more than 58,000 covid tests. Positive back in the seventies.
Schoenfeld acknowledged that Duke had advantages in his fight against covid, including funding for his vast medical campus, constant, “extremely expensive” surveillance testing, and plain luck.
“We are an independent, private university. We can make decisions quickly and implement those decisions and do what is best, ”Schoenfeld said. “Our goal is to survive and move forward. We feel good about where we are today, but we can do everything right and stay one day even after the outbreak. “
Ten miles down the road, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has taken a different approach.
Despite warnings from the county health department, students and staff, UNC invited students back in person and for a combination of inst online notification. Some canceled their campus accommodation contracts, but were in about 6,000 dorms in the first week of class.
The university chose to give students a mandatory test before re-admitting, stating that comprehensive testing was against CDC recommendations and could create a “false sense of security”.
The following week, more than 130 students and staff tested positive.
The university quickly reversed its curriculum, moved its classes online and asked students to leave campus.
“This is definitely not what we’re hoping for this fall semester,” UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiwicks said at the time. “Our first priority has always been the safety of the community.”
Since the epidemic began, 1,138 students and 72 staff have tested positive. The university has conducted a total of 4,612 tests.
The university’s approach has sparked a wave of criticism, including the vague editorial of the Daily Tar Hill, which “we all saw coming.”
Dr. Bill, Professor of Infectious Diseases, University of Virginia. Bill Petrie said that while he understands the argument that testing makes the best practices for euphoria, aggressive testing, contact tracing and quarantining viral spread.
“It’s not rocket science,” Petrie said. “The way to control it is really very fast and doing a lot of tests. You identify the person by getting out of the infection and you isolate them, then you find everyone who came in contact with that person during the infection period and you keep them all separate. “
UNC is currently offering voluntary testing for students living locally, but few are taking advantage of it. The university recorded 137 tests and nine positive cases last week.
While public bodies like the UNC – which oversees the governing body elected by the state general assembly – often have to go through various bureaucratic and financial waters, this kind of “shoe-leather epidemiology” is something that all universities can do, Petri said. Added.
“It takes a lot of effort, but if you do that you control the (epidemic).”
Samantha Sarparent, a 21-year-old head of exercise and sports science, said the feeling among the students was fear and frustration – a feeling that, with better caution, what happened was largely preventable.
“Many other schools apply the test before they come back,” the superintendent said. “There’s no reason we couldn’t do that.”
The superintendent, who is a colonial adviser, added that he has been left in the dark by the administration. But if there is a silver lining, he said, it can be learned from other institutions and the university itself from the UNEST’s Mistakes. “What happened was exactly what I predicted,” the superintendent said. “We could have done something more, but we didn’t.”
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