Expensive College students, College, Employees and People:
Today, New York Point out Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the New York Condition Department of Well being will not extend the existing statewide purchase necessitating that all men and women, no matter of vaccination status, are masked indoors whilst in community configurations and venues. That statewide get expires tomorrow, Feb. 10. Masks will continue on to be essential in wellbeing treatment facilities and in public K-12 educational facilities. The governor cited the major drop in each new instances and hospitalizations as important components that educated this determination.
In just the past 7 times, the quantity of new COVID cases in Onondaga County has declined by 41{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}, and new COVID-similar hospitalizations have declined by 20{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}. On the heels of today’s announcement, the Onondaga County government has indicated indoor mask needs for vaccinated persons will be removed countywide, apart from in K-12 educational institutions. Understandably, the governor’s announcement nowadays, coupled with the beneficial COVID facts tendencies in our local community and on campus, have prompted lots of associates of our local community to inquire about the upcoming of masking on our campus.
Significantly like the point out and the county, the trend on our campus is going in a beneficial path as the pandemic evolves to an endemic. As a result, more than the upcoming seven to 10 days, the University and the General public Overall health Crew will carry on to intently observe COVID knowledge and developments on campus and across our Central New York local community. Because the commencing of the pandemic, science has driven our determination-making. This includes new day-to-day scenario counts, surveillance positivity fees, regional hospitalizations and other appropriate metrics. If these info stay at reduced degrees, the University will consider action to change the on-campus masking protocols appropriately. The most most likely original motion toward easing on-campus masking necessities is to return to amount “BLUE” on our masking framework. This would maintain the prerequisite that all persons stay masked in lecture rooms and recommending—but not requiring—vaccinated and boosted individuals to be masked in most other indoor configurations on campus.
Today, our present rely of lively instances is at its lowest degree considering that the commencing of the spring semester, and our 7-working day average take a look at positivity rate has now declined to below 2{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}. Effects from campus wastewater screening have yielded likewise positive outcomes. Just this week, home hall tests of Lawrinson, Haven, DellPlain, the Mount and Shaw all returned undetectable concentrations of virus in the wastewater, suggesting no energetic bacterial infections among inhabitants. This quite beneficial scenario has been enabled by the amazing initiatives of college students, school and team to comply with the University’s COVID vaccination and booster requirement.
We are however reviewing the state and county direction to have an understanding of any extra effects the stop of the statewide mask mandate will have on our neighborhood, like as it relates to masking at the stadium. We will proceed to update our community on any new developments, specially as it relates to any forthcoming selection to change our masking framework stage.
Thank you for your continued consideration to our general public health rules. The optimistic developments we are experiencing are a testomony to your dedication to the well being and effectively-currently being of our campus and neighboring communities.
Sincerely,
J. Michael Haynie
Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives and Innovation
