COVID-Related Updates for This Week

Rockhurst Student, Faculty and Staff Companions, 

We are encouraged by the numbers of people in our campus community who have reported being vaccinated and who intend to become vaccinated when it is available to them. Our case count at the Rock continues to remain low thanks to our community’s shared efforts to engage in health-promoting choices. Consequently, the Pathway Planning Task Force has been able to approve more proposals for modified activities, and Residence Life has been able to advance an additional “step” in their guest/visitor policies (will be evaluated again in 1-2 weeks for the feasibility of the next step). At this time, we are anticipating a fall semester that is close to “normal!” Please watch for a more formal announcement soon from Fr. Curran.

 COVID Vaccinations

• Beginning Monday, March 29, higher education faculty and staff who live in Missouri become eligible for the vaccine. Beginning Friday, April 9, all Missouri residents become eligible. 
• Kansas City University (KCU) has offered to be a provider of COVID vaccines for the Rockhurst community, including residents of other states. We need to provide an estimate of the number of Rockhurst employees and students who would be interested in receiving a vaccine at the KCU campus. To aid in our planning, please answer this one-question survey by Friday, March 26. You must be logged into the Rockhurst portal to access this survey.
• Vaccine availability information for both Missouri and Kansas can be found on the Jackson County website. Additional information is available at walgreens.com and cvs.com.
• If you receive a COVID vaccination, please notify the University after you receive the second (or sole in the case of Johnson & Johnson) dose by completing this COVID-19 vaccine form. We are pleased to report that more than 300 employees and students have received a full course of the vaccine.

Important Reminders 

• If you find out you are COVID positive, you have COVID symptoms, or have been in close contact with a COVID-positive person, please submit the Illness and Exposure Reporting Form immediately.

Positive and Quarantined Cases 

Our community cases continue to remain low across all categories and populations.  For undergraduate students on the Troost campus there was a slight increase from last week, while the Westport campus remained stable. There are no graduate student cases to report on either campus. There is only one faculty and staff case on the Troost campus and none on the Westport campus.

As of March 23 

*There is one undergraduate positive case in University residential facilities. The number of beds available on campus for isolation is 45 and the number of occupied beds is zero. 

Definitions 

• COVID Active: tested positive for COVID; isolated 
• Quarantined: had close contact with a COVID-positive person; possibly being tested 
• Close Contact: You were within 6 feet of someone who has COVID-19 for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period; You provided care at home to someone who is sick with COVID-19; You had direct physical contact with the person (hugged or kissed them); You shared eating or drinking utensils; They sneezed, coughed, or somehow got respiratory droplets on you 

As Dr. Anthony Fauci has reminded us, we are “at the corner” but not quite around it. With increased vaccineavailability and low case numbers, we are so close to being able to relax many of our measures. For now, with virus variants circulating, please continue to be careful as we move toward this goal.

Matthew D. Quick, Ph.D.   
Dean of Students/Vice President   
Student Development and Athletics   
   
Douglas N. Dunham, Ph.D.   
Provost and Senior Vice President   
Academic Affairs