COVID-19 practices will look different coming back for the upcoming fall semester. MSU administration released a statement stating isolation and quarantine housing will not be utilized for the fall semester if/when students contract the virus on campus.
MSU spokesperson Dan Olsen explained many of these spaces were created towards the start of the past academic year while the pandemic was still fairly new to campus and all the returning students. With more students in compliance with vaccination and fewer students utilizing these spaces, this plan of action will no longer be needed.
Due to more vaccinations, booster utilization, and declining case numbers on campus, the need for these spaces is no longer essential to the administration, following the natural evolution of this virus.
“As we continue to look towards the future at Michigan State and an incoming class as well as this virus just being part of our daily lives, it's not a space we can continue to set aside at this point in time,” Olsen said.
Olsen explained even when COVID was more relevant on campus, the usage of these spaces was not as high as anticipated.
“We had (a) quarantine and isolation space set up on campus of about 300 beds," Olsen said. "On average through the semester, about 10 folks at any given point were using that space and it continued to decline over the course of the academic year and after spring break even further.”
The last numbers Olsen received on April 11 showed only four beds were being filled out of the 300, showing plans needed to be adapted.
Olsen implored students to begin to make their own plans personally when contracting the virus as they would with any other sickness students may contract such as influenza during the winter time.
Olsen realized many students were already making their own plans even when this housing was available, explaining these alternative plans are their best and own personal options.
“For many students during COVID … on campus … about half of them returned home to complete their quarantine and isolation time,” Olsen said.
Olsen explained the university will continue to provide COVID-19 guidelines on what students should do when contracting or being in contact with the virus that fall in line with CDC guidelines such as staying away from classes for five days and following standards based on vaccination status. These standards can be found here.
Olsen said the most important thing now is to make sure to stay up to date on vaccinations and know the university will continue to watch the fluctuations of the virus as they have done in the past to see if changes need to be made to the plan.
“We will continue to adapt our plans as we need to best protect our campus community and our surrounding community," Olsen said. "If we have learned one thing through COVID it is that things can change in a moment. As you have seen throughout the course of the pandemic, the university does adapt its plans to respond to those changes.”
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