University of Michigan President
Mark
Schlissel
announced
the
University is taking several steps
to increase its testing capabilities
during his weekly U-M Ann Arbor
COVID-19 update email to the U-M
community Feb. 5.
Starting Feb. 16, the University
will require weekly COVID-19
testing for graduate and professional
program students living on campus.
The University will also offer free
testing to “Ann Arbor community
members residing near the U-M Ann
Arbor campus” through the end of
the month and pop-up testing to
students in quarantine housing.
The
decision
comes
after
the Washtenaw County Health
Department issued a stay-in-place
recommendation from Jan. 27 to Feb.
7 to contain an increase in COVID-
19 cases as well as an outbreak of
the new highly transmissible B.1.1.7
variant of COVID-19, the latter
which led to a two-week pause of all
U-M athletics.
Additionally, Schlissel announced
University students currently make
up almost half of positive COVID-19
tests in Washtenaw County.
In an email to The Michigan Daily,
Emily Toth Martin, an associate
professor of epidemiology at the
School of Public Health, explained
the reasoning behind the decision to
test graduate students.
“We
are
seeing
a
higher
proportion of cases occurring in
graduate students overall compared
to at this point last semester,” Martin
wrote. “Concerns about the potential
of a more transmissible variant
heightens the need to make sure that
people in any group residence hall is
being tested regularly.”
Martin, a key player in the
University administration’s response
to COVID-19, wrote the University
was offering free testing to residents
of Ann Arbor in an effort to help
the Washtenaw County Health
Department and the Michigan
Department of Health and Human
Services respond to B.1.1.7 variant
infections.
“This testing is being offered
through the county, and the state
and county are offering additional
nearby testing sites that are updated
regularly on their website,” Martin
wrote. “We are working together
with the county to test both students
and community members living
close to campus at the IM Sports
Building.”
Ann Arbor residents who are
not experiencing any symptoms of
COVID-19 and have not had a recent
exposure to the virus can get tested
at the Intramural Sports Building on
Mondays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and
Wednesdays and Fridays from 1 p.m.
to 5 p.m. until Feb. 28. There is no
sign-up required to be tested.
In an email to The Daily, Dr.
Lindsey Mortenson, the University
Health Service medical director
and the chief of UHS Psychiatry
Clinic, wrote that pop-up testing is
occuring in areas where an increase
of COVID-19 cases have been found.
“Students
in
quarantine
&
isolation housing have either already
tested positive, or had a high-risk
exposure,” Mortenson wrote. “For
students in the latter category, UHS
and DPSS deliver test kits to them
directly.”
Martin wrote the transition to
indoors due to cold weather and
concerns for increased cases during
the winter was the cause of this
sudden expansion in U-M’s testing
capability.
“We are hoping that we will be
able to get as many local students
to participate in weekly testing as
we can,” Martin wrote. “Numbers
will naturally go up as we test more
thoroughly, but we hope this will
ultimately reduce the number of
big outbreaks that occur on and off-
campus.”
The University of Michigan
announced it is “optimistic and
hopeful” for a more normal
semester in Fall 2021 on Monday
evening,
though
no
official
decisions have been made. A tweet
from the official U-M account
said U-M staff and faculty are
working hard to go back to more
in-person classes in the fall.
“While no decisions have been
made regarding fall term, we
remain optimistic it will be much
more normal,” the tweet reads.
“Faculty, staff & leadership are all
eager to do their part to return to
as normal a semester as possible
& appreciate your patience &
understanding.”
In a longer announcement
sent
to
U-M
parents,
U-M
spokesperson
Rick
Fitzgerald
emphasized
the
administration’s
eagerness
for greater normality in the
fall. He wrote the University
will continue to follow public
health
recommendations
going into Fall 2021, meaning
campus will likely not be
completely as it was pre-
March 2020.
“The
university
will,
of
course, make decisions about
the fall term that are informed
by the then current status of the
pandemic in our region and heed
the advice of our campus, local
and state public health officials,”
Fitzgerald wrote. “It is likely
that some public health safety
precautions will remain in place
in the fall, such as wearing face
coverings and maintaining social
distancing.”
In the University’s COVID-
19 briefing on Feb. 12, Chief
Health Officer Preeti Malani
reiterated
the
hope
that
things will continue to get
better on campus. Martino
Harmon, vice president for
student
life,
said
Student
Life and Michigan Housing
are continuously working to
find a best-case fall housing
situation and planning for
multiple possible scenarios,
though he did specify what
scenarios
Student
Life
is
considering.
Rich
Holcomb,
associate
vice
president
for
human
resources, said at the briefing
that most non-teaching staff
hope to continue to work from
home in the fall, which he said
would not impact a potentially
“in-person”
semester.
According to a survey released
in last Friday’s briefing, 87%
of the U-M staff is interested
in continuing remote or hybrid
work after the pandemic.
While
the
University
eventually aims to distribute
vaccines to everybody who
wants one, Fitzgerald wrote
they still don’t have enough
to make this a reality. Fall
semester hinges on vaccine
availability, Fitzgerald wrote.
“The big unknown remains
the availability of the vaccine,
which today is in very short
supply,” Fitzgerald wrote. “We
have developed the capacity to
vaccinate as many as 25,000
persons per week and remain
ready to provide vaccines for all
members of our community who
wish to be vaccinated according
to state guidelines once supplies
are adequate.”
Fitzgerald
concluded
the
announcement by acknowledging
the toll the pandemic has taken
on both the University and the
nation.
“Finally,
we
want
to
acknowledge that the ongoing
uncertainty of the pandemic is
wearing on all of us,” Fitzgerald
wrote. “It’s been emotionally
draining as each of us has had to
adjust our work and personal lives
to appropriately respond to this
public health crisis that already
has claimed the lives of 485,000
Americans.”
COVID-19 cases and death rates
are highest in correlation with the
percentage of racial and ethnic
minorities in a county’s population,
researchers from the University of
Michigan Institute for Healthcare
Policy and Innovation have found.
The
group
of
researchers
developing this study told The
Michigan Daily they wanted to
compare the importance of social
factors with the rate communities
are contracting COVID-19, as
well as the communities that are
suffering the most deaths.
The researchers used the Social
Vulnerability Index to analyze the
vulnerability and disadvantage
of each community in a broad
domain, according to Renuka
Tipirneni, assistant professor of
internal medicine. This index
was developed by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention
to analyze how social factors
influence a community’s COVID-
19 risk.
According to an article by
Michigan News, the SVI gives
each county a 10-point score to
analyze how social measures
influence the number of cases
in each county. Some examples
of these measures are poverty
rate, income and education level,
housing type and English language
ability. The measures also include
single-parent families, percentage
of people over 65 or under 17,
access to a personal vehicle, racial
and ethnic minority population
percentage and disability.
Monita Karmakar, a senior
statistician
with
the
division
of general medicine within the
department of internal medicine,
said the main goal of the research
was to see if a social association
existed
between
the
social
demographic risk factors and U.S.
COVID-19 incidence and mortality
rate at a county-level analysis.
“Initially, when the COVID-
19 pandemic hit the U.S., we saw
a lot of incidents and mortality
and a lot of burden of the disease
amongst minority communities,”
Karamakar
said.
“Which
led
us to think that there might be
some kind of neighborhood-level
disadvantage that increases one’s
chances of getting the disease
and eventually mortality from the
disease.”
Tipirneni said the group found
that the higher the level of SVI
or disadvantage, the higher the
number of COVID-19 cases and
deaths were in that county.
As vaccines are beginning to
be distributed across the state,
Tipirneni said she believes this
index could also benefit the state
of Michigan with targeting the
supply and demand of distributing
vaccines.
“This index is already being
used in a variety of ways that I
think are useful, and then we
could think of other ways to use
it in the future,” Tipirneni said.
“The state health department in
Michigan has actually been using
the Social Vulnerability Index to
target specific communities at
higher risk for increased testing
for
COVID-19
for
increased
resources.”
Since the beginning of the
pandemic, there have been many
counties in Michigan that have
been known as hotspots due to
the increased amount of COVID-
19 cases in that area. Tipirnei
shared that the countries with
the most cases at the time of their
analysis were Macomb, Wayne
and Oakland Counties.
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Wednesday, February 17, 2021
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Student COVID-19 cases represent
nearly half of total county cases
University of Michigan officials
reported an increase in positive
COVID-19
cases
among
U-M
students Friday, mainly attributed to
large off-campus social gatherings.
According to an email from U-M
President Mark Schlissel, University-
related COVID-19 cases currently
comprise nearly half of total cases
in Washtenaw County — up from a
third of total cases on Feb. 3.
“We are seeing increases in
student COVID-19 cases, spread
across all levels of students and
largely due to social gatherings,”
Schlissel’s email reads. “New cases
amongst faculty and staff are at a
low level and are not increasing.
Overall, U-M cases represent about
half of the total cases in Washtenaw
County.”
This
increase
occurred
one week after the end of
Washtenaw
County
Health
Department’s
stay-in-place
recommendation and Michigan
Athletics’
two-week
halt
on all athletic activity. The
recommendation and athletic
pause were mainly in response
to diagnosed cases of the more
contagious
B.1.1.7
variant
among U-M students.
As of Feb. 5, there are 23 cases
of the B.1.1.7 variant diagnosed in
Washtenaw County. All cases are
associated directly or indirectly with
the University.
Under
the
stay-in-place
recommendation,
students
were
permitted to leave their residence for
in-person classes, work and research.
Students were also permitted to
obtain food and medical supplies,
among other exceptions.
At Friday’s weekly COVID-19
briefing, Dr. Robert Ernst, director
of University Health Services and
chair of the Campus Health Response
Committee, said the rate of off-campus
positive cases flattened during the
stay-in-place recommendation but
have once again spiked.
“We’re worried because we are
tracking these cases back to off-
campus social activity,” Ernst said.
“When we see bunches of cases
come in after a party or something
like that, it really is disruptive to the
system.”
In the past two weeks, there
have been 1103 positive cases in
Washtenaw County and the weekly
positivity rate is 2.6%.
As of Feb. 16, graduate students
coming to campus regularly are
required to undergo weekly COVID-
19 testing through the Community
Sampling and Tracking Program.
Undergraduates living on campus
or using campus facilities have been
required to participate in mandatory
testing since the beginning of the
semester. The compliance rate for
mandatory weekly testing among
undergraduates on campus has been
95% or higher, Schlissel wrote.
University announces
optimism for more ‘normal’
Fall 2021 semester
NAVYA GUPTA
Daily Staff Reporter
ALEC COHEN/Daily
PAIGE HODDER
Daily Staff Reporter
U-M reports positivity increase due to large off-campus social gatherings
Hopes for more in-person classes, increased
campus density hinge on vaccine availability
Researchers utilize social
vulnerability index to analyze
COVID-19 risk by county
KAITLYN LUCKOFF
Daily Staff Reporter
Study finds correlation between virus cases, death
rates and racial/ethnic minority percentage
RESEARCH
NEWS BRIEFS
ADMINISTRATION
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
‘U’ President Mark
Schlissel announces greater
U-M testing capabilities
JARED DOUGALL
Daily Staff Reporter
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
Sampling program grows to include grad students, Ann Arbor residents
ACADEMICS