WVU undergraduate classes to go online starting next week as COVID-19 ramps up

Classes had already been scheduled to be online after the break.

Certain health sciences programs will be excluded, while faculty teaching graduate and professional-level courses may determine whether to teach in person on those days.

Dining and residence halls will remain open for regular hours. Research labs will be as well. Libraries will be open, but may have limited hours.

“Now more than ever, we ask our students, faculty and staff to stay home and away from those outside of your immediate bubble as much as possible,” Dr. Carmen Burrell, medical director of WVU Medicine Student Health and Urgent Care, said in a release. “If you have to be out or travel, follow the safety guidance that has been put in place to protect you and others, especially our more vulnerable residents.”

Students, faculty and staff have been encouraged to pre-register for free voluntary COVID-19 testing Nov. 23-24 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the WVU Student Rec Center. Additional testing opportunities will also be available Nov. 23-24 for students, as well as faculty and staff.

The Monongalia County Health Department, in conjunction with WVU and the West Virginia National Guard, will hold free COVID-19 testing Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the WVU Student Rec Center.

At its worst, in late August, the weekly positivity rate was between 9% and 10% of the WVU student, faculty and staff population who were tested. After going down in September and staying below 1% in October, the current positivity rate is over 2% and looks to keep trending upward.

The latest numbers on the WVU online COVID-19 dashboard show that from Nov. 9-15, there were 4,024 students tested, with 91 positive results. For that same period, there were 633 faculty and staff tested, with nine positive tests.

For the period of Nov. 9-15, there were 46 self-reported student cases and seven self-reported faculty and staff positive tests.

As of Nov. 15, there are 542 students who are in quarantine, which means they have potentially been exposed to somebody who has tested positive for COVID-19, and are avoiding contact with others for 14 days. On Nov. 9, the number of quarantining students was 285.

There are 167 students in isolation, as of Nov. 15, which means they were tested for COVID-19, and are avoiding contact for 10 days or until medically cleared. Of the 167, there are 14 students isolating in Arnold Apartments, where apartments are being utilized by WVU for that purpose. On Nov. 9, there were 91 students in isolation, with six being at Arnold Apartments.

As of Sept. 16, Arnold Apartments has been designated a “congregate setting” by Gov. Jim Justice, meaning that all cases in the complex are counted as one in the state totals.

The change in how WVU cases are counted is intended to reduce the impact of the university’s positive cases on the rest of Monongalia County, Justice said at the time.

“We have a population with students who come into a county and all of a sudden that county is flooded maybe with positives, and that county is skewed or biased in a way that hurts the county’s ability to go to school or play sports or whatever they may do,” Justice said on Sept. 16. “It hurts them, so we’ve been trying to figure out what is fair.”