April 15, 2022
As anticipated, with the arrival of the BA.2 subvariant and its high transmissibility, there has been an uptick in COVID-19 cases nationally, locally and within the CMU community. Given our highly vaccinated and boosted CMU community, the cases we are seeing generally range from asymptomatic to mild. As we have communicated previously, cases are no longer the critical metric, and we are increasingly focused on the severity of outcomes and the availability of medical care.
We strongly encourage everyone to wear facial coverings, particularly in situations such as larger gatherings or in classrooms as we weather this BA.2 challenge. Those not up-to-date on vaccinations must continue to wear facial coverings while indoors, and facial coverings are required for everyone in certain settings, such as our CMU shuttles.
Like we have throughout the pandemic, when a student is required to isolate because of a COVID-19 diagnosis or close contact, we ask instructors to handle the situation as they would any other illness — by showing compassion, finding flexibility in course assignments, and looking for alternative ways to stay caught up while the student is unable to attend class.
As always, CMU continues to consult regularly with public health experts and will continue to monitor developments and assess the latest CDC and Allegheny County guidance.
Daryl Weinert
Vice President for Operations, Interim Vice President for Research, COVID-19 Coordinator
CMU COVID-19 Update
Dear Members of the Carnegie Mellon Community,As anticipated, with the arrival of the BA.2 subvariant and its high transmissibility, there has been an uptick in COVID-19 cases nationally, locally and within the CMU community. Given our highly vaccinated and boosted CMU community, the cases we are seeing generally range from asymptomatic to mild. As we have communicated previously, cases are no longer the critical metric, and we are increasingly focused on the severity of outcomes and the availability of medical care.
We strongly encourage everyone to wear facial coverings, particularly in situations such as larger gatherings or in classrooms as we weather this BA.2 challenge. Those not up-to-date on vaccinations must continue to wear facial coverings while indoors, and facial coverings are required for everyone in certain settings, such as our CMU shuttles.
Like we have throughout the pandemic, when a student is required to isolate because of a COVID-19 diagnosis or close contact, we ask instructors to handle the situation as they would any other illness — by showing compassion, finding flexibility in course assignments, and looking for alternative ways to stay caught up while the student is unable to attend class.
As always, CMU continues to consult regularly with public health experts and will continue to monitor developments and assess the latest CDC and Allegheny County guidance.
Daryl Weinert
Vice President for Operations, Interim Vice President for Research, COVID-19 Coordinator