Hi everyone, I hope you’re all doing well, and thanks for tuning in
to another episode of UVA Weekly.
You’ve been hearing a lot from us this week, and I appreciate your patience and your
continued attention as we work together to manage COVID-19 in our community.
It’s a bit of a grab bag this week, but let me start with the headline.
As you know, at the advice of health care experts, we have instituted three updated
guidelines that will be in place for at least the next two weeks:
First, gatherings should be limited to groups of 5 or fewer;
Second, masks are required except when you’re eating, in your room, or exercising outdoors or in
accordance with IM/Rec guidelines; and third for students, we urge no travel outside of Charlottesville,
unless truly necessary, and similarly discourage inviting visitors from outside Charlottesville.
I also hope you saw the email from Dean Groves yesterday that clarified a few points about
these new restrictions.
I know the guidance on travel in particular has led to a lot of questions.
Here’s the basic idea: we understand that our students have important reasons to travel
– a major family event, for example, or a job interview, or a trip to collect data
for research you’re conducting.
That is not our main focus with these new guidelines.
What we’re asking you to do is please stay put in Charlottesville for the next couple
of weeks if it’s at all possible.
For the next two weeks, we especially discourage making any new travel plans that can be avoided,
and we ask that you consider making adjustments in cases where a trip is easy to reschedule.
More generally, for those of you who have asked questions about the guidelines, thank
you—it shows how much you are trying to follow them.
I will say that if you see a grey area or some ambiguity, it is perfectly fine to ask
for clarification.
But you can also use your best judgment.
We are not trying to trip anyone up on technicalities, and if you exercise your best judgment or
make an honest mistake, you aren’t going to get in trouble.
If you intentionally and repeatedly or egregiously violate the guidelines, you will get in trouble.
We understand these new guidelines will impose even more of a burden than you are already
bearing, and we do not adopt them lightly.
We are following the advice of public health experts, who have told us we need to take
these measures for the next two weeks to slow the spread of the virus, which is in the interests
of all of us.
In terms of additional efforts to promote safety, as most of you have heard, we have
also ramped up our testing programs over the last week – including testing wastewater
from residence halls and testing entire dorms when we find signs of infection – more on
that later in the program.
Thank you again to all of you who have gone through this testing process – and thanks
in advance to those who will be asked to get tested in the weeks ahead.
Testing is a critical element of containing the virus, and we appreciate your cooperation.
As part of our effort to ramp up our testing program, we have also created a saliva test
that will allow us to expand testing in a quick and non-invasive way.
Earlier this week, I had a chance to stop by a newly created saliva screening station
on Grounds, and we’ll be rolling out more stations in the coming weeks.
I’m grateful to our Vice President for Research, Ram Ramasubramanian, for leading the effort
to get this program up and running.
I also had the opportunity to visit O-Hill dining hall on Monday, and I was really impressed
with how the team has modified their operations to serve meals safely to our students.
Thank you to all of our dining hall staff for everything you’re doing to keep our
community safe.
Finally, I’d like to answer a question from our Charlottesville neighbors and reinforce
a few things that Dean Groves shared last week.
Our neighbors in the Charlottesville community had a question about wanting to know where
our students are being quarantined and isolated on and off Grounds, and some of the rest of
you may be wondering as well.
The answer is we have set aside housing on-Grounds for both the isolation and quarantine of students
who reside in University housing.
A small number of students are isolating or quarantining in hotels near Grounds as well,
and I can assure you that all safety precautions are being taken to avoid further spread of
the virus.
Two last things Dean Groves shared in an earlier message that I’d like to amplify for students:
Don’t forget to get your flu shot – which is especially important this year.
You can get a shot at Student Health and Wellness or at a local pharmacy, and we recommend doing
so before the end of October.
More information is available on the Student Health and Wellness website.
Navigating university life during a pandemic is really challenging, to say the least, and
it’s especially important to take care of yourselves.
This includes maintaining a good sleep schedule, eating right, getting exercise, finding ways
to safely engage with new friends, and enjoying time outside as best you can.
I recommend checking out the University Programs Council website for ideas about how to stay
active and or the Contemplative Sciences Center website, which identifies a whole array of
mindfulness, yoga, and virtual retreat offerings throughout the semester.
And We will also continue to offer resources for students experiencing added stress, anxiety,
or other mental health impacts as a result of the challenge and uncertainty of this moment
– please check out the CAPS website for more information on ways to get support.
As always, if you have questions or comments, please contact my colleague Matt Weber at
mw2xy@virginia.edu.
A couple of the segments on this show are based on your emails from last week.
Alright, thanks for listening, and for all that you are doing.
On with the rest of show… and over to my very talented co-host, fourth year student,
Davion Zeno.
Wassup Guys, Zeno here and I’m back like I left something.
Coming to you with the #Youva team to talk all things covid and news on grounds.
As you know, last week several dorm residents were tested after high levels of the virus
showed up in their wastewater.
Let’s take a look at how all that works.
One of the things that we're doing on Grounds to minimize the spread of COVID-19 is pooled
wastewater testing.
Testing individual residence halls.
Sort of testing everybody in the building at once.
One of the biggest challenges that we faced with COVID-19 is that people can spread the
virus without having any symptoms and wastewater surveillance is a great tool to detect some
of those asymptomatic spreaders.
We can detect SARS-CoV because it's shed in stool
at pretty high rates especially early in infection.
By capturing wastewater we can do a pooled sample of everybody that lives in the building
that use the toilet that day and detect if there are new cases even before they have
symptoms.
This can provide an early warning system we can then take further steps to test individuals
once we detect that there might be new cases and ultimately limit the spread in the residence
halls.
So the wastewater surveillance gives us another tool to find cases early and minimize
the chance of further spread
So, what happens when someone tests positive or is a close contact of someone who tested
positive?
let’s talk Quarantine and Isolation.
Buckle up because we're on it again.
Quarantine and isolation are different.
Someone is asked to quarantine and separate from others when they have been in close contact
with a person with COVID-19 or are awaiting their test results after a close contact.
What’s a close contact you ask - being within 6ft of someone for more than 15 minutes.
Isolation is the separation of people with COVID-19 from others who aren't sick.
Here’s a scenario: You have some symptoms of COVID-19 so you call Student Health and
Wellness.
If you need to come in and get a test, your results will get back to you quicker than
a Jimmy John’s sandwich, eh not that quick but usually within 48 hours of the test.
While you’re waiting for a test or its result you should be quarantining.
If you live on grounds, the University will find you a spot, if you are off Grounds, you
should quarantine in your residence or back home, if it is safe to do so.
Your test comes back, yup, positive, so you’re on the isolation timeline.
Keep a journal--mark those calendars because dates are key.
Ready?
Your isolation can end after at least 10 days have passed since your symptoms first appeared,
you have had no fever for 24 hours without fever-reducing medication AND your other symptoms
have improved.
Otherwise, you should stay put until a doctor says you're good to go..
Ok, take 2: no symptoms, BUT you’ve been in close contact with someone who has tested
positive.
Your best testing window is 5-7 days after your last exposure, based on the virus’
incubation period.
You’ll need to quarantine until it’s testing time.
If you’re positive but still have no symptoms, you may end isolation after at least 10 days
have passed since the day of your test.
See - jotting down your dates is helpful!
If you have a negative test result with no symptoms, you still quarantine because that
virus can still develop.
If you are still symptom free after 14 days of quarantine, get outside!
Another big difference between isolation and quarantine is that you can isolate with others
who have tested positive but you should avoid quarantining together if at all possible.
For example, say Sally lives with 5 other roommates and they were all exposed and decide
to “quarantine” together.
But, it turns out, Sally is actually the only one carrying the virus.
Well, she may now have passed it to her other roommates - get it?
I know, living with roommates can be hard on a good day, but if you must quarantine
in a shared space, you should be doing your best to separate as much as possible from
others, and when you can’t, wear a mask, practice social-distancing, clean surfaces
often, especially those is a shared bathroom, and avoid preparing food or eating together,
For more information about quarantine in close quarters, check out these resources from the
CDC and Student Health and Wellness.
Confusing, yeah, I know, but, the short answer is this: test or no test, quarantining if
you’ve been exposed or have symptoms and isolating if you have a positive test are
some of the most effective ways to keep your friends healthy.
It’s not fun, but it is SO IMPORTANT.
For more information, check out the student health and wellness website
Also, don’t forget, testing positive doesn’t define you or say anything about you except…
you were exposed to COVID-19.
This disease is highly contagious and you could be doing all the right things and still
get exposed or test positive.
The most important thing is to take action if you think you’ve been exposed, be cooperative
with contact tracing (which might mean answering your phone even if you don’t know the number
- horror!) and isolate or quarantine if you are asked to do so..
In Uva News, last week the National Pan Hellenic Council faced racist slurs from anonymous
users during a program the NPHC led on Zoom meant to encourage unity through social engagement
in the black community.
The National Pan Hellenic Council was founded in 1930 and consists of historically black
fraternities and sororities that formed decades before.
What happened that Monday is an example why the council and orgs associated were created
in the first place: to form unity amongst black people and combat overt and covert racism.
I was there on that call and yes I am still angry, but the NPHC was still able to have
a successful program.
I am sorry for the 46 members on that call and even more sorry the first-year students
were exposed to such racism in one of their first attempts to build community on Grounds.
We can and must do better.
Ok.
That was a lot of information.
Let’s try to end with some good news.
I’ll give you a hint, it’s about some cute animals.
We live in a small apartment complex and there’s 7, 8 of us on the team here, so when we came
back in July, we had a lot of time and it was just you come here, you play hockey and
you go back to your apartment and we have nothing else to do, so we decided it was a
perfect time to start fostering animals.
We had a kitten named Parker but we renamed him Parkour because of the way that he would
jump off of everything.
And then three kittens; Queso, Quesadilla and Taco.
And then Oscar, who was 5-years old and he was a Boxer-Pit mix.
I actually still have one.
This is the last one that’s not adopted yet.
We made an Instagram account for them.
We’ve been posting all of the kittens and now people are coming to us from different
parts of Charlottesville with their foster animals to post them to get them adopted,
so we’ve actually done really well on it!
I think Amber is going to be so sad when the last one gets adopted so, I definitely think
we will be having more kittens in this apartment.
Our team, we’re friends on and off the field all the time, that’s how it’s always been,
that’s just the culture of our team.
So I think COVID has really impacted us in that sense of trying to still stay a team
and stay together all the time.
Having the animals here is, like, one of those ways that we have found a bit of normalcy
in everything, so I think they’ve been absolutely so much fun and have given us another reason
to get together and still follow these protocols and follow all these rules that we have but
still have a sense of normalcy with it all.
That’s it for this week of UVA Weekly.
Don’t forget to hit up the @YOUva team on Instagram or email us at youva@virginia.edu.
I'm out like a light.
All across this place we call the Commonwealth, you'll find we have a way about us, a particular style.
A certain way we carry the day on these broad Blue Ridge shoulders.
It comes from being unafraid of the hard things.
Never losing sight of the little things and when all is said and done
coming together for the good things.
Because every inch, every number, every call we earn we write our own story inked in the
sweat of today.
And this story is far from finished so we're going to keep pushing two a days, pulling
double shifts hitting the books, hitting the sleds and
hitting our toughest challenges with everything we've got.
Because we cavaliers have a way, to be both great and good
for the salt of the coast.
For the stones of the capitol.
For the hug of Skyline Drive.
For the playmakers.
For the waymakers.
For the daymakers.
For all Virginia.