By the numbers: Campus COVID-19 response

May 17, 2022 (Volume 45, Number 17)
Article by Michele Coffill

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Pictured is one of the many vaccine clinics held on campus during the pandemic.

Photo Credit: Valerie Hendrickson

Grand Valley will soon enter its third fall semester of the COVID-19 pandemic but the Fall 2022 semester will certainly look different than two years ago, when students, faculty and staff began repopulating campus after a stay-at-home executive order. 

Since August 2020, more than 25,000 students, faculty and staff members have received their COVID-19 vaccinations and booster shots and are considered fully vaccinated. 

As GVSU’s pandemic response shifted in response to changing indicators, so has the work of the Virus Action Team.

VAT, charged with leading the campus through plans established to keep community members safe, decentralized on April 30. Much of the work shifted to other departments or dissolved, aligning with similar actions from local health departments and guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as numbers of positive cases decreased nationally.

At the height of the pandemic, VAT members met regularly to suggest policies, and answer emails and phone calls from students, faculty and staff members. Members of VAT were responsible for the work that led to a 90 percent campus vaccination rate.

Below is a look at the numbers from Grand Valley's pandemic response:

• 25,000 Lakers are fully vaccinated, and more than 6,000 reported at least one booster shot

• 90% of the campus community is fully vaccinated

• 2.5 million submissions to the daily self-assessment, with a 96.4% overall pass rate 

• 130,000 free tests were given on campus, with a cumulative positivity rate of 2.1%

• 7,511 positive tests by campus members, some were reinfections

• 15,300 emails sent to VAT

• 336 regular VAT meetings

Current and past members of VAT are Ed Aboufadel, Dottie Barnes, Tina Barnikow, Lynn (Chick) Blue, Michele Coffill, Kristi Cooper, Nykia Gaines, Doug Graham, Kate Harmon, Lisa Haynes, Ben Holder, Dave Huizen, Jean Nagelkerk, Greg Sanial, Robert Smart and Nykia Gaines. Two physicians from Spectrum Health with expertise in infectious diseases served as consultants: Drs. Habiba Hassouna and Russell Lampen.

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