COVID-19 Update from UMass Public Health Promotion Center: March 10

In an email to the campus community, Ann Becker and Jeffrey Hescock, co-directors of the Public Health Promotion Center (PHPC), described a decline in the campus COVID-19 positivity rate, the lifting of the indoor masking requirement and the availability of a vaccine clinic, which resumes March 23, after spring break.

That email is as follow: 

Dear Campus Community,

We continue to monitor COVID-19 trends in our community through our symptomatic, adaptive and voluntary testing program as well as wastewater surveillance. Individuals testing positive continue to report they are experiencing minimal to moderate symptoms of infection.

The latest COVID-19 testing data for the UMass community for March 2-8 shows 41 new positive cases. The university’s positivity rate is 1.28%, compared to last week’s rate of 2.09%. The wastewater surveillance continues to drop to a very low level on campus. The state’s seven-day positivity rate is 1.61%.

Given the significantly improved public health environment of our campus and recent guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, we announced earlier this week that the campus is lifting its mask requirement in most indoor settings.

With this transition, we encourage everyone to respect the choices that individuals will make about their own masking. KN95 masks will remain available for free at the Public Health Promotion Center (PHPC) in the Campus Center. Anyone who is not fully vaccinated should continue to wear a mask, and anyone who chooses to continue to wear a mask is welcome to do so. We are fully committed to providing support for our immunocompromised faculty, staff and students and those at higher risk. Individuals can seek reasonable accommodations for their own documented health conditions by contacting Disability Services (for students) and Accessible Workplace Office (for staff and faculty). For the rest of this week before spring break, faculty members and graduate student instructors who plan to seek such accommodations may, in the interim, elect to hold their classes remotely.

Vaccine clinics are regularly offered on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Thursdays from 1 to 4 p.m. Clinics will not be conducted during spring break and but will resume on March 23. Walk-ins will be accepted, but we encourage everyone to book an appointment.

Thank you for all you are doing to care for yourselves and one another, and to support the health of our community.

Sincerely,

Co-Directors of the Public Health Promotion Center (PHPC)

Ann Becker, Public Health Director
Jeffrey Hescock, Executive Director of Environmental Health and Safety