2021-02-17 by The Michigan Daily

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Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Ann Arbor, Michigan

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ACADEMICS

University announces optimism for more ‘normal’ Fall 2021 semester

Hopes for more in-person classes, increased campus density hinge on vaccine availability PAIGE HODDER

Daily Staff Reporter

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Student COVID-19 cases represent nearly half of total county cases

NEWS BRIEFS

U-M reports positivity increase due to large off-campus social gatherings NAVYA GUPTA

Daily Staff Reporter

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, Universityrelated 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 offcampus 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

RESEARCH

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 COVID19 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.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

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 preMarch 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 COVID19 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.”

Researchers utilize social ‘U’ President Mark vulnerability index to analyze Schlissel announces greater COVID-19 risk by county U-M testing capabilities ADMINISTRATION

Study finds correlation between virus cases, death rates and racial/ethnic minority percentage KAITLYN LUCKOFF Daily Staff Reporter

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 COVID19 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 COVID19 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

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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 COVID19 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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Sampling program grows to include grad students, Ann Arbor residents JARED DOUGALL Daily Staff Reporter

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 COVID19 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

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INDEX

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 offcampus.”