Updates
Dear Brown Community Members,
Below, please find our weekly update on Brown’s testing program for COVID-19, with additional information and context to complement the data shared via our public dashboard:
https://healthy.brown.edu/testing-tracing/dashboard
A reminder that if you live, work or study in Rhode Island, you can get the vaccine here when your age group becomes eligible. Residents of the 02906 zip code ages 16 and up are now eligible, and all individuals 16 years of age and up will become eligible on Monday, April 19. The State of Rhode Island has launched a Vaccine Interest Notification List to notify you when you are eligible for vaccination and when a vaccination appointment opens for you. You can register at https://portal.ri.gov/. More information about vaccinations in Rhode Island can be found at https://covid.ri.gov/vaccination.
Eligible employees who have submitted proof of COVID-19 vaccination in Workday can earn $50 toward 2021 Wellness Rewards. Wellness Rewards is the voluntary wellness incentive program designed to help faculty and staff maintain and improve their overall well-being. Additionally, for those needing sick time to support their vaccine recovery, Brown will credit up to two sick days (up to 1 per each vaccination day), as needed. Credit for time off will be updated once per month upon updating your vaccine status in Workday.
Please upload your completed vaccination card directly to Workday or email a pdf or jpeg to Worklife@brown.edu. If submitting via email, please use Virtru to email it securely. All vaccination records will be stored confidentially in Workday and can be loaded via the Vaccine Management link in the Benefits app on your Workday landing page. For more information on the Wellness Rewards program please visit:
The link to the instructions on how to upload your vaccination card is here:
http://brown.edu/go/vaccine-manage
We encourage students to also upload their final vaccination cards directly to Medicat. For more information, please visit the "Verify Your Vaccination" information section on the Healthy Brown site:
https://healthy.brown.edu/vaccinations
At Brown, since launching our routine testing program for the fall term on Aug. 24, we have conducted 356,229 asymptomatic tests to date. A total of 10,648 individuals have been tested in that timeframe, and the total number of positive test results is 554 (up 12 this week from a total of 542 last week) -- a prevalence rate of 5.2%.
Here are highlights of the testing program over the last seven days, Thursday, April 8, through Wednesday, April 14:
-- There have been 12 positive asymptomatic test results: 7 from employees, 4 from on-campus students and 1 off-campus student. As a reminder, our student testing program includes undergraduate, graduate and medical students.
-- Over the past week, the employee asymptomatic positivity rate was 0.24%, and the student asymptomatic positivity rate was 0.05%. The Rhode Island positivity rate during this same time period was 2.89%.
-- The average turnaround time for asymptomatic test results during this period was approximately 15 hours. -- University Health Services (UHS) conducted 24 symptomatic tests of students. Of these, less than 5 were positive for COVID-19. Exact results for symptomatic students who are tested by UHS are not reported (and do not appear on the public dashboard) to protect the confidentiality of the small numbers of students who are tested. We will report on ranges and any concerns regarding trends in these weekly summaries.
-- The University does not directly test symptomatic employees, as they receive health care from their individual providers. We do 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 11.
-- It is important to note that with regard to all positive cases, we have taken action consistent with our contact tracing protocols, COVID-19 Campus Safety Policy, isolation and quarantine procedures, and other measures outlined in Brown’s Plan for a Healthy and Safe 2020-21.
As a reminder, if you are currently being tested once a week and would like to change to twice a week, you are welcome to do so. Students can email studenttesting@brown.edu to make that change. Faculty and staff can email employeetestinguhr@brown.edu for guidance on how to increase their testing frequency.
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 (401-863-6500, studenttesting@brown.edu), and faculty and staff can contact the employee testing support team (401-368-4828, employeetestinguhr@brown.edu).
Sincerely,
Russell C. Carey
Executive Vice President, Planning and Policy