Updates
Dear Brown Community Members,
As you will read below, the number of students and employees reporting positive test results for COVID-19 at Brown declined this week compared to last week. We did want to note, however, that at the end of last week the Rhode Island Department of Health announced that all counties in Rhode Island are now considered medium-risk areas according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 Community Levels risk assessment. The CDC determines risk level using three metrics: new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 population in the past seven days, the percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, and total new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in the past seven days. The recent increase in Rhode Island from the low to the medium risk category is due to the case rate increasing above 200 cases per 100,000 people. Further information about the CDC risk assessment approach can be found on this website:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/community-levels.html
Accordingly, RIDOH has made the following recommendations, all of which are consistent with public health protocols in place on the Brown campus:
-- Stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines and boosters.
-- If you are immunocompromised or high risk, have a plan for testing and talk to your health care provider (University Health Services for students) about protecting yourself.
-- If you have household or social contact with someone at high risk, consider self-testing and wearing a mask when indoors with them.
-- When indoors in crowded settings, consider wearing a mask regardless of vaccination status. This is especially important for people who are immunocompromised.
-- Get tested if you have symptoms or have been exposed to someone with COVID-19. Further information from RIDOH can be found on their website:
In regard to test results reported to the University over the last week: From Thursday, April 21, through Wednesday, April 27, 114 students reported positive test results (down 71 from a corrected total of 185 last week). Approximately 94 students are currently in isolation in on-campus or designated isolation housing off-campus (note that the number of students who report positive tests results and the number in isolation will not be the same each week, as students may isolate in their off-campus apartments or at home if they live nearby, and the isolation numbers fluctuate as students begin and end their respective isolation periods). In the same timeframe, 26 employees reported testing positive (down 2 from last week). We also monitor employee absences due to COVID-19 — which can be for a range of reasons, including care of a child or family member or quarantine due to a known exposure — and the number of such absences for the most recent full work week was 6. It is important to note that these numbers represent employee absences reported to University Human Resources and do not necessarily reflect all of the disruptions currently impacting faculty and staff due to K-12 school closures and remote learning, care for a family member, or other challenges to daily routines.
Through Wednesday, April 27, we have distributed 54,353 test kits. Operating hours for the test kit pick-up sites can be found on the testing page of the Healthy Brown website:
https://healthy.brown.edu/testing-tracing/test-kit-pick-sites
If you are visiting the test pick-up sites for additional tests and you have recently taken a pack of ten (10) KN95 masks, please leave the masks for others. Each bag of masks is sufficient for most people for about a month.
As previously communicated, rapid antigen tests are becoming increasingly available from the federal government supply as well. Insurance companies are now reimbursing the costs of tests, and tests will be available in the coming weeks at pharmacies and other locations with no out-of-pocket expense. Tests can also be ordered directly at https://www.covidtests.gov/ (we understand this option is not available for direct mailing to students in residence halls -- we suggest having tests delivered to a family member or friend who can send them to you at Brown and/or taking advantage of the insurance reimbursement option referenced below). We encourage all members of the community to take advantage of these resources. Information for employees regarding options through participating insurance carriers can be found on the University Human Resources benefits page:
https://www.brown.edu/about/administration/human-resources/benefits
And information for students participating in the student health insurance plan can be found on the United Healthcare Student Resources website (see the March 24, 2022, updated titled “COVID-19 Home Test Member Reimbursement):
https://www.uhcsr.com/news-main
Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns. For questions or support regarding the testing program, students can contact the student testing support team (studenttesting@brown.edu), and faculty and staff can contact the employee testing support team (employeetestinguhr@brown.edu).
Sincerely,
Russell C. Carey
Executive Vice President, Planning and Policy