The state of CWU’s COVID-19 policies in 2023

Morgana Carroll With contributions from Joshua Packard News Editor and Staff Reporter

Medical Director of Student Health Services June Bredin said that CWU has seen low numbers of positive COVID-19 cases in the last two years, and recently lower cases may be due to the accessibility of at-home test kits.

“I can’t even begin to guess because most people are testing at home….all of the public health data is saying we don’t know how this correlates to the total numbers,” Bredin said. “We don’t have an accurate count because people are either not even bothering to test or they’re testing at home. If they’re not that ill…they’re not following health precautions.”

According to Bredin, CWU is not being affected by the recent global surge because the surge mostly stems from a new variant in Asia, and that the only way to properly prepare for any new variant is to stay updated on vaccinations.

Another concern that Bredin had was an increase in influenza cases this academic year.

According to Bredin, influenza rates were lower the past two years because of the precautions people were taking to not get COVID-19. Bredin said now that people are going out in public again, they are coming into contact with influenza with much weaker immune systems.

“We have multiple positive influenza for any single COVID positive that we have,” Bredin said. “Get vaccinated, you can do it [flu and COVID vaccines] all at once.”

Bredin said she believes CWU is handling

“I feel our CWU administration has consulted with the appropriate Public Health officials and are following current common sense recommendations, and are responsive to new information as it comes out,” Bre-