An increased number of student cases has raised the campus alert level and prompted additional mitigation measures.
An increase in the number of positive cases reported among students on Sept. 17 has raised the campus alert level to Level 2 – Moderate Alert and prompted additional mitigation actions. Elon’s COVID-19 Dashboard reported 25 new student cases on Thursday, with the majority involving student-athletes. As a result, Elon Athletics has suspended in-person workouts, weight training and operations in all sports until further notice.
Since Tuesday, Sept. 15, 21 student-athletes have tested positive for COVID-19, including a cluster of cases among football student-athletes that will be reported by the Alamance County Health Department to the state. Currently 18 other student-athletes are exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms and awaiting test results. All students involved have been moved into isolation. Over the past two days, Elon has also done extensive testing of students on teams who may have been exposed and those test results could yield additional cases.
The spread of cases among student-athletes appears to be primarily related to social contacts outside of normal team activities. Elon Athletics has been practicing strict cleaning and social distancing protocols and has been regularly testing student-athletes, coaches and trainers.
In response to these and other cases reported this week, Elon is working closely with the Alamance County health department to carry out established protocols for testing, contact tracing and notification and quarantine. Numbers of students in isolation and quarantine have increased significantly as a primary strategy to limit the spread of the virus on campus. The available supply of quarantine spaces remains adequate to handle the increased demand of this increased number of cases. To date, the majority of positive student cases have either been asymptomatic or illnesses with mild symptoms lasting three to five days.
As Elon health services staff members have examined positive cases reported on campus so far this semester, they have found no indication of transmission related to classrooms or other academic environments. The primary transmission among students has been through roommates/housemates or social contacts. The recent rise in cases demonstrates how easily the virus is transmitted among students in social situations. Avoiding group gatherings, wearing masks whenever interacting with others outside your room/apartment/house, practicing physical distancing, and adhering to healthy habits recommended by health professionals are important steps each of us should take.
This increase in cases raises one of Elon’s 12 COVID-19 Alert Indicators to the very high level and moves the overall campus alert level from New Normal to Moderate Alert. At this level, all members of the campus community are advised to further limit their exposure to others. All of the actions taken are included in the key operational guidance from the COVID-19 Alert System and the Ready & Resilient plan. Additional mitigation measures may be announced and implemented as needed.
Elon had prepared for the possibility of an increase in cases through the design of its COVID-19 Alert System, which provides a data-informed decision-making model for implementing mitigation strategies.