This update provides new information about the testing efforts on campus.
Dear Elon community,
Thank you for supporting campus-wide testing last week. Social hiatus measures remain in place, and the focus of our entire community should be on wearing masks, limiting social contacts, and keeping each other healthy before Thanksgiving.
Testing update
Results for testing this past week show the following:
- Cases are tied to social contact and most transmission can be tied back to already reported clusters of cases.
- Positivity rates decreased across the week as testing moved from students most closely associated with previously found clusters to the general student population:
- We tested 4,683 students and identified 113 positive cases. Those students, along with their close contacts, were moved to isolation/quarantine.
- The first 188 tests on Oct. 24 included students in three social organizations with clusters of cases and returned a 4.74% positivity.
- The next 1,378 tests on Oct. 26-27 included students prioritized by connection to clusters of cases and returned a 3.99% positivity.
- The final 3,117 tests on Oct. 28-29 included students from the general population and returned a 1.54% positivity, which aligns with rates from random and targeted testing all semester.
Campus-wide testing last week provides a good model for how we will test large numbers on campus both before and throughout winter and spring terms. We will continue testing this week, concentrating on any students who didn’t test last week and re-testing of students most closely connected with prior clusters. We will also continue our random testing of graduate students, faculty, and staff.
Next Monday we will share details and schedules for pre-departure Thanksgiving testing that will be made available to interested students, faculty, and staff.
Thank you
We greatly appreciate the work of students, faculty, and staff to reach this moment in the semester. Students, thank you for your patience with our new testing system and even attending testing during the power outage. Thank you to the many staff and faculty (listed at the bottom of this email) who gave their time working multiple 3-hour shifts last week to make our new testing possible. Faculty and staff who would like to volunteer to assist with future testing, please email jeffstein-covidtest@elon.edu.
With three weeks left and finals approaching, our campus focus will be on limiting our social interactions per the social hiatus restrictions and finishing academics safely and successfully so we can all enjoy the Thanksgiving break.
Jeff Stein, Ready & Resilient Committee Chair
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- Dan Anderson, Vice President of University Communications
- Ginette Archinal, Medical Director of Student Health and University Physician
- MarQuita Barker, Director of Residence Life
- John Barnhill, Associate Vice President for University Advancement
- Tom Flood, Assistant Vice President of Physical Plant
- Jason Husser, Associate Professor of Political Science and Policy Studies, and Director of the Elon Poll (Academic Council Representative)
- Deandra Little, Assistant Provost, Director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning and Professor of English
- Paul Miller, Assistant Provost for Academic Operations and Communications and Professor of Exercise Science
- Kelly Reimer, Director of Teaching and Learning Technologies (Staff Council Representative)
- Carrie Ryan, Director of Auxiliary Services
- Kelli Shuman, Associate Vice President for Human Resources & Chief Human Resources Officer
- Gabie Smith, Dean of Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Psychology
- Mary Southern, Project Manager for Provost and Academic Affairs Operations (Project Manager)
- Mike Ward, Deputy Director of Athletics
- Randy Williams, Vice President and Associate Provost for Inclusive Excellence and Assistant Professor of Education