Hi everyone, Jim Ryan here and I hope you’re having a good evening.
I’d like to welcome you back to UVA Weekly: Episode 2.
Our goal over the next few minutes is to bring you up to speed on how things are going at
UVA and highlight the most important news of the week related to COVID-19 and this one-of-a-kind
semester.
Tonight, you’ll be hearing more about testing and quarantining, especially how students
living off-Grounds should quarantine themselves if needed.
You’ll also learn about updates to UVA’s COVID dashboard, and get a better understanding
of the metrics we continue to watch as the semester unfolds.
But first, a quick update from me on some late breaking news:
As you may have heard, through wastewater and regular testing, we’ve found 5 cases
of COVID-19 in one of our residence halls—out of 188 students.
The 5 students who tested positive are in isolation, and their close contacts are in
quarantine.
At the advice of our medical experts, we tested the entire residence hall last night.
We are asking all residents to quarantine temporarily while they await test results,
meaning that they will remain in their rooms except when retrieving meals or using the
bathroom and attend classes remotely during this 24-48 hour period.
We have also asked residents to wear masks essentially at all times except when they
are sleeping.
We expect to have results back as early as tonight, maybe even by the time you are watching
this.
As we’ve said all along, success this semester will depend in large part on our ability to
stay a few steps ahead of the virus, which is what are trying to do by testing all students
in this residence hall.
The aim is to identify as quickly as possible anyone else who might test positive and to
move them into isolation, and to move close contacts into quarantine space.
We found out about these cases thanks, in part, to a program we have in place that tests
the wastewater coming out of residence halls.
It’s one of the ways we have to spot signs of possible infection early so we can hopefully
prevent a few cases from becoming an outbreak.
Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be doing even more to try and catch outbreaks
before they happen—from testing random students on a daily basis, to conducting saliva screenings
at locations all across Grounds.
If you are called to take a test, please cooperate—you will not, I repeat not, get in trouble for
testing positive.
Speaking of positive tests, as you may have seen this afternoon, we’ve had an uptick
in student cases reported today—52 new positives.
This follows 3 days of very low positive cases—5 yesterday and 4 new cases on each of the two
days before that.
The swing 4 or 5 to 50 is not because of a spike in cases the last 24 hours but from
some delays in getting test results back from earlier this week—the delay was caused by
a software problem with one of our machines that has since been fixed.
It is important to note that no matter how much testing we do, the best way to prevent
an outbreak is to keep the virus from spreading.
I am going to sound like a broken record, but it’s crucial to keep following the
basic rules that you have heard before and hopefully know by heart: Stay 6 feet apart;
wear a mask when you’re inside and when you’re outside and can’t be at least 6
feet apart; wash your hands; don’t get together in groups of more than 15 people; and if you
have symptoms, please self-quarantine until you can get tested—and please get tested
right away.
Finally, for those of you who are students, please know how impressed and grateful we
all are that so many of you are taking this so seriously—at the same time you’re trying
to make new friends, get used to new routines, and start new classes.
I know it’s a challenge, but please keep it up, and we’ll do our best to set you
up for success.
That’s it for me.
If you have questions or ideas for the next show, please reach out to my colleague Matt
Weber at mw2xy@virginia.edu.
And now I’ll turn it over to our rising internet star, fourth-year student Davion
Zeno, to share his update.
See you all next Thursday night.
Thanks, and be well.
That’s crazy, they actually invited me back.
Hey look at us.
Who would've thought.
Not me.
Needless to say, I am excited to be back with these weekly updates and collaborating with
the Youva team.
Let’s get right into business.
Testing is still confusing.
Please remember, if you have symptoms or think you may have been exposed to Covid-19, call
Student Health and Wellness.
You will have a brief assessment and if you meet the criteria of a close contact but don’t
have symptoms, you might be asked to test at a satellite location on Grounds.
If you are determined to have symptoms, you will be tested at Student Health..
Student Health and Wellness appointment availability and test results are generally quicker than
other testing sites in town and, remember, you won’t get in trouble for testing positive
or for information shared in the contact tracing process.
Choosing to test elsewhere may also impact the number of tests available for Charlottesville
residents, including front line workers in the community, You don’t want to be taking
a test from a Charlottesville resident who really needs it.
Also, remember if you attend a UVA Health System sponsored community testing event as
a UVA student, you will be referred back to Student Health, so save yourself a trip and
call SHW first.
If you believe you have been exposed to the virus, you should quarantine by yourself for
14 days after the last day you were exposed to the person with COVID-19 even if you test
negative.
You can still develop the disease after your test date, within that 14 day timeframe, so
let’s make sure we’re not spreading the virus to friends, family, and the Charlottesville
community unknowingly.
We’ll talk more about quarantine next week, but check the Student Health and Wellness
site for more info about how to quarantine safely, especially if you are off Grounds
and living with roommates.
Now as many sports are starting up and the football team is looking forward to a new
home opener with Duke, some of our student-athletes have and important message to share more important
than any Tech game.
Groundskeepers, how it started, we were having deep and good conversations with our team.
We were definitely trying to find ways on how can we make change in our team and in
the community and inevitably the world.
The Groundskeepers is protecting our Grounds, it’s where we live.
When the white nationalists came here which almost like took over our grounds.
We’re trying to take it back.
Back for UVA but also the city.
We’re trying to empower the city to take those days back and that negative connotation
away from those days just so it turns almost into a celebration of not what happened, but
how we responded to it and the response of all the good things Charlottesville is.
We’re continuously trying to find ways now to, how can we impact our teammates and ourselves.
How can we change ourselves right now and try to take some growth in the next couple
weeks?
My responsibility is my passion and that is my players and so on and off the field who
they become is really important to me.
So whether that’s a first-round draft pick, whether that’s a successful father, successful
husband working a job to provide for a family.
Those are both one in the same.
Making sure they graduate, making sure they make their family proud.
As those things merge off the field, with the Groundskeepers with Jana, when you talk
about an amazing leader and an amazing person, it’s been such a joy to be a part of what
we’re trying to bring change for as far as the Groundskeepers.
So basically, just recognizing things that have happened in the past to the University
protecting today and working to create a better future for tomorrow.
And so through education, learning about the past, learning where we are as a country and
the things that we can work on to correct and promote a better future and so, with the
march just trying to do things that will help bridge the gap between the University and
the community and so everybody feels as one, a part of one.
We will hopefully bring change and not just right initially but things that’ll change
and create a lasting legacy.
In more positive news, the Board of Visitors voted to endorse proposals set out by the
racial equity task force brought together this summer after the brutal killing of George
Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many others.
The violence against black people and largely marginalized groups is embedded in 400 years
of racism and hate in this country, and we must educate ourselves by unpacking the history
of statues, monuments, and the history of this very university so we can fight for a
better future.
The Board also approved resolutions to contextualize the statue of Thomas Jefferson in front of
the Rotunda, remove and relocate the racist George Rogers Clark statue, and approved other
measures to rename and reclaim the University’s landscape.
Thank you to the students, staff, and faculty who protested and petitioned for these changes,
These efforts are long overdue and I hope that they continue.
And after my shout out for a dining app last week, I found out that dining has partnered
with the app delivery service Good Uncle to provide meals throughout Grounds, and you
can even use your flex dollars.
The dining halls are open with to-go options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and students
can pre-order using Grubhub or stop by The Forum at O’Hill, at a separate entrance
away from the dining hall line, to pick up a prepared meal to-go.
Dining also has reusable bags to take multiple meals to-go at once for students who would
like to limit their visits to the dining rooms.
Check out the UVA Dining website to view hours of operations and menus.
Finally, Dr. Mitch Rosner will talk about some updates to UVA’s COVID tracker.
Today, I wanted to review with you some changes to the UVA COVID Tracker, but before doing
that, I wanted to give you an update on some recent events that I’m sure are on your
minds and you may have heard about.
Under the direction of Dr. Amy Mathers, we have been testing wastewater that comes from
some of the dormitories.
Over the last couple of days, we’ve noticed that one dormitory has been positive as well
as having several cases.
Last night, we went into that dormitory and have tested all students and are awaiting
the results.
I think this also highlights the need for continued vigilance in terms of the public
health measures that you know so well.
Those include face-mask wearing, social distancing, and good and frequent hand hygiene.
If we have learned anything, this virus is very opportunistic and takes advantage whenever
we let down our guards, so please remain vigilant in those public health measures, they clearly
make a big difference.
The UVA COVID Tracker will be undergoing some changes in response to our evolving knowledge
and continued feedback.
Now to give you some updates around what changes you can expect in the COVID Tracker.
These include several different features.
We will now show enhanced data on UVA testing.
This will show the number of tests that have been performed on a day, as well as the positive
tests broken down for students and employees.
You will see data from the past week as well to show trends in that data.
We are also including daily averages of new cases so that you can see this data as well.
And perhaps most importantly, we’re showing you the number of active cases.
What is an active case?
An active case is a case that’s been detected in the last 10 days with a positive test and
is required isolation either on or off Grounds.
In addition, we’re continuing to show hospital statistics in terms of hospitalizations for
patients with COVID and we’re also continuing to show you the isolation and quarantine capacity
and usage.
We hope that you’ll find this data useful and this data will also continue to evolve
as we continue to learn more and respond to your feedback on the information that you
want to see.
Thank you.
Wanna share some of your good news in the UVA Weekly?
Hit us up with cool stuff your org is doing to stay safe during Covid, or to build community,
or to help the Charlottesville community in this difficult time.
Email us at youva@virginia.edu
When I think back to my happiest memories, very very few of them were spent totally
by myself.
I have had the opportunity to meet some of the best friends I'm ever gonna have in my
life.
My time at UVA has been revolving around social experiences, it's about people that I met
and fun stuff that we did together.
I remember one night, my salsa group and I, instead of practicing a dance which we'd been
spending hours on all semester, we decided instead just to turn on some music and improvise.
We ended up spending hours that night dancing the night away.
I remember one time my friends and I during finals got a booth and we just spent hours
and hours just studying there and in order to like commemorate the moment we walked into
1515, went to the photo booth and just took a picture.
I remember I was approached by a guy in my class who said he had just gotten his pilot's
license, so I met up with him and two other strangers and we just flew around Central
Virginia that same day that he asked me.
It was kind of just this spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment experience.
I put way more value into that memory now than I did before the coronavirus started
just because something like that is just so unimaginable today.
Thinking of those memories, it inspires hope in people and without hope we can't go anywhere.
Every student is feeling the exact same way, everybody's missing out on the same exact
things, but working together as a group, as a community hopefully, those memories that
we've missed out on, those will come back.
There's not one big thing we can all do.
It's a lot of little things that are gonna add up.
It's sitting a little bit farther away on the Lawn from your friends.
It's not sharing a drink, it's not sharing your lunch.
Moving forward, we just have to focus on the things we can do.
We can wear masks, we can separate ourselves.
I can't say we're gonna be in the football stadium 30 thousand people this year, I can't
say that but I can say I can care about the person next to me.
I have the power to do that.
Every single day we don't know what's going to come next.
We don't know how this is gonna end, when this is gonna to end, but we do know that
it's gonna change.
I obviously want to create more happy moments in my life.
And so, really all I can do is look forward to having more of these moments in the future.
We hold on to hope because hope is the one thing that keeps us going when we can't see
what's on the other side.
If we can do this right we can be the hope for education that we can come back and be
safe and keep others safe.
We have the opportunity to give the country some hope.
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