JMU Health Update - Oct. 7
JMU NewsDear JMU Family,
Dashboard Changes
Noticeable changes were made to the university’s pandemic dashboard this week. Our team in the Office of Institutional Research has been hard at work with the medical team in the University Health Center to provide even more data, presented even more clearly, for your consideration. But they haven’t been working alone; contributions to the new design were provided by data visualization expert Lee Feinberg of DecisionViz. Lee is a proud parent of a member of our new Class of 2024 and kindly volunteered to assist the university.
Besides the excellent design, you may notice that the additional weekly surveillance testing is now combined with the cumulative testing and daily testing figures. Plus, the number of available quarantine and isolation beds will continue to rise as the university adds capacity.
Finally, JMU is among the very few schools nationally to report all positive cases among its student body, not just the ones resulting from tests on campus. Two-thirds of JMU students live off campus and are being tested at providers other than the University Health Center. We firmly believe this is an important data point to report so that our community has a clear picture of the prevalence of the disease locally.
Update on Cases
The university observed 0 new positive cases of COVID-19 at the Health Center yesterday as well as 0 self-reported cases, with 3 becoming considered “recovered,” meaning they were diagnosed as positive more than 10 days ago and are no longer infectious. This puts the number of active cases at 30. The number of open quarantine and isolation beds stands at 291 out of 315. More information can be found on the university’s Stop the Spread dashboard. While our situation continues to improve, individuals must continue to follow public health guidance by wearing masks, maintaining physical distance and washing hands frequently.
Stop the Spread HELPline
If students and their families have questions and can’t readily find the answer in our FAQs, call the Stop the Spread HELPline, which is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The toll-free number is 888-886-3131. And don’t forget, many of your questions can be answered here. Call center agents also will be answering questions sent to covid19@jmu.edu, and you can submit questions via a form on the Stop the Spread site. Please note, the HELPline is not for reporting noncompliance with health guidance and the Stop the Spread Agreement signed by all students. Please use the LiveSafe app, which goes directly to the JMU Public Safety dispatch.
Stay safe, and please remember that the only vaccine currently available for COVID-19 is solidarity. And download the COVIDWISE app!