January return to campus data, testing and webinar
Dear students,
We hope you had a restful and restorative winter break, and we are excited to welcome you back for another term at Northwestern.
We deeply appreciate your patience and understanding as we navigate the shifting landscape of the pandemic to protect our students, faculty and staff while still prioritizing the needs of our active and engaged community.
In this update, we share information about current testing data, on-site and at-home testing, new guidance on masking, updated city mitigation expectations and more. Please read the following carefully.
Current COVID-19 testing data
Earlier today, we updated the COVID-19 dashboard with information from the past three weeks. The dashboard reflects a significant number of positive cases, so it is helpful to understand some additional context behind those numbers.
For the weeks of Dec. 17-23 and Dec. 24-30, the vast majority of positive cases reflected on the dashboard were associated with self-reported, at-home or off-site tests from students, faculty and staff who were not on campus for Winter Recess. Over those periods, there was minimal on-site testing, and for the most part, only positive off-site or at-home tests were reported to Northwestern. For this reason, we do not have a representative positivity measure to report for these periods. More than 1,200 positive cases were identified during that two-week period.
For the most recent week, as students started completing return-to-campus testing, we have seen a similarly high number of cases. The approximately 900 positive cases from this week reflect:
- So far, during the Wildcat Wellness arrival testing, about 300 positive tests have resulted from nearly 11,000 asymptomatic tests at the testing centers. Each day of arrival testing has consistently shown between 2.5% and 3% positivity.
- About 45% of the cases were undergraduate students, 35% graduate students and the remainder faculty and staff.
- Approximately 50% of the positive cases were either reported from at-home tests or from outside testing sites, and many of these individuals have not yet come to campus.
- Positivity among those who are symptomatic remains very high, consistent with trends locally and within the Northwestern Medicine system.
We expected to see an increase in positive cases due to the current omicron surge. The vast majority of Northwestern community members who test positive are showing minor symptoms, if any, and they are recovering quickly. We expect to see continued elevated numbers next week as students continue returning to Evanston and Chicago to complete arrival testing but anticipate the Wildcat Wellness period will help to stabilize some of the transmission in our community.
As we shared in a previous update, as more data is collected over the next few days we remain committed to exploring whether additional activities with in-person components can resume in the second week of Wildcat Wellness, subject to safety precautions.
Extra testing day for Wildcat Wellness
As we approach the midpoint of our two-week Wildcat Wellness period, most students have arrived back on campus and completed the first-week COVID-19 testing requirement. To accommodate those of you who have not completed this test, we will open the Jacobs Center testing site from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 8. A second in-person, on-campus test is required during the second week of Wildcat Wellness, and the Jacobs Center and Chicago testing centers will both offer extended hours from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The testing sites will continue to distribute at-home test kits. However, as supply of these tests remains constrained, we are limiting distribution to one box per person, and there may be some days where at-home tests are not readily available.
Community webinar on Jan. 11
To keep our community updated and to address questions, we invite students and their families, as well as faculty and staff, to attend a Return to Campus Discussion Series webinar from noon to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 11. The webinar will provide an overview of the University’s health landscape, classroom expectations and mitigation efforts that will enable us to resume in-person classes and activities. We encourage you to sign up to attend and invite you to submit questions in advance. We will post a recording of the webinar on the Discussion Series webpage.
Shift in masking guidance
In response to what we are learning about the effectiveness of different types of masks, we now recommend wearing a high-quality mask—at minimum a surgical mask—in shared campus environments. These masks are readily available in the entryways of most buildings on campus and are proven to be more effective than cloth masks. When in-person classes resume, students will be required to wear a surgical or higher quality mask with two or more layers while in class. Additionally, instructors are now strongly encouraged to wear masks while lecturing and should remove their masks only with extreme distancing, such as when teaching at the front of a large lecture hall.
City mitigation orders
The City of Evanston and City of Chicago announced mitigation orders that call for proof of vaccination (or in certain cases, a test within the past 24 hours) in dining, entertainment and fitness facilities. These orders will apply to Northwestern’s Evanston and Chicago campuses, and we continue to work with local public health departments to understand exactly how they will be enforced on campus.
Students, faculty, staff and visitors may be required to show proof of vaccination at certain campus locations and events. For vaccinated students, faculty and staff, your vaccination status is embedded within your Symptom Tracker application, so showing your green badge can act as proof of vaccination.
Unvaccinated community members should prepare for an increase in required on-site testing in order to be able to continue accessing campus. More details will be communicated soon.
With the guidance of public health officials and our own medical experts, we will continue to adjust our mitigation efforts against COVID-19 as events dictate. We appreciate your commitment to taking the actions necessary to keep our campuses healthy and active.
Sincerely,
Luke Figora
Vice President for Operations
Kathleen Hagerty
Provost and Professor
Julie Payne-Kirchmeier
Vice President for Student Affairs
Dear faculty and staff,
We write to provide important information on our return to campus experience and updates as we move toward resuming in-person classes and activities Jan. 18.
We deeply appreciate your patience and understanding as we navigate the shifting landscape of the pandemic to protect our students, faculty and staff while still prioritizing the needs of our active and engaged community.
In this update, we share information about current testing data, on-site and at-home testing, new guidance on masking, updated city mitigation expectations and more. Please read the following carefully.
Current COVID-19 testing data
Earlier today, we updated the COVID-19 dashboard with information from the past three weeks. The dashboard reflects a significant number of positive cases, so it is helpful to understand some additional context behind those numbers.
For the weeks of Dec. 17-23 and Dec. 24-30, the vast majority of positive cases reflected on the dashboard were associated with self-reported, at-home or off-site tests from students, faculty and staff who were not on campus for Winter Recess. Over those periods, there was minimal on-site testing, and for the most part, only positive off-site or at-home tests were reported to Northwestern. For this reason, we do not have a representative positivity measure to report for these periods. More than 1,200 positive cases were identified during that two-week period.
For the most recent week, as students started completing return-to-campus testing, we have seen a similarly high number of cases. The approximately 900 positive cases from this week reflect:
- So far, during the Wildcat Wellness arrival testing, about 300 positive tests have resulted from nearly 11,000 asymptomatic tests at the testing centers. Each day of arrival testing has consistently shown between 2.5% and 3% positivity.
- About 45% of the cases were undergraduate students, 35% graduate students and the remainder faculty and staff.
- Approximately 50% of the positive cases were either reported from at-home tests or from outside testing sites, and many of these individuals have not yet come to campus.
- Positivity among those who are symptomatic remains very high, consistent with trends locally and within the Northwestern Medicine system.
We expected to see an increase in cases due to the current omicron surge. The vast majority of Northwestern community members who test positive are showing minor symptoms, if any, and they are recovering quickly. We expect to see continued elevated numbers next week as students continue returning to Evanston and Chicago to complete arrival testing but anticipate the Wildcat Wellness period will help to stabilize some of the transmission in our community.
As we shared in a previous update, as more data is collected over the next few days, we remain committed to exploring whether some additional activities with in-person components can resume in the second week of Wildcat Wellness, subject to safety precautions.
Extended hours at testing sites and at-home test options
To accommodate students who have not completed their required test for the first week of Wildcat Wellness, we will open the Jacobs Center testing site from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 8. Next week, the Jacobs Center and Chicago testing centers will both offer extended hours from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The testing sites will continue to distribute at-home test kits. However, as supply of these tests remains constrained, we are limiting distribution to one box per person, and there may be some days where at-home tests are not readily available.
Webinars on Jan. 11 and Jan. 12
To keep our community updated and to address questions, we invite students and their families, as well as faculty and staff, to attend a Return to Campus Discussion Series webinar from noon to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 11. The webinar will provide an overview of the University’s health landscape, classroom expectations and mitigation efforts that will enable us to resume in-person classes and activities. A second webinar for faculty that covers guidance and supports for instruction, research and well-being issues will take place from 4 to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 12. We encourage you to sign up to attend and to submit questions in advance. We will post a recording of the webinar on the Discussion Series webpage.
Shift in masking guidance
In response to what we are learning about the effectiveness of different types of masks, we now recommend wearing a high-quality mask—at minimum a surgical mask—in shared campus environments. These masks are readily available in the entryways of most buildings on campus and are proven to be more effective than cloth masks. When in-person classes resume, students will be required to wear a surgical or higher quality mask with two or more layers while in class. Additionally, instructors are now strongly encouraged to wear masks while lecturing and should remove their masks only with extreme distancing, such as when teaching at the front of a large lecture hall.
City mitigation orders
The City of Evanston and City of Chicago announced mitigation orders that call for proof of vaccination (or in certain cases a test within the past 24 hours) in dining, entertainment and fitness facilities. These orders will apply to Northwestern’s Evanston and Chicago campuses, and we continue to work with local public health departments to understand exactly how they will be enforced on campus.
Students, faculty, staff and visitors may be required to show proof of vaccination at certain campus locations and events. For vaccinated students, faculty and staff, your vaccination status is embedded within your Symptom Tracker application, so showing your green badge can act as proof of vaccination.
Unvaccinated community members should prepare for an increase in required on-site testing in order to be able to continue accessing campus. More details will be communicated soon.
With the guidance of public health officials and our own medical experts, we will continue to adjust our mitigation efforts against COVID-19 as events dictate. We appreciate your commitment to taking the actions necessary to keep our campuses healthy and active.
Sincerely,
Luke Figora
Vice President for Operations
Kathleen Hagerty
Provost and Professor
Priya Harjani
Interim Vice President for Human Resources