February 22 Weekly CIRT Campus Update

CIRT Update

Published February 22, 2021

Dear students, staff and faculty:

Below, please find important campus, regional and national updates from the COVID-19 Incident Response Team (CIRT). 

Campus Status

The campus is currently operating in blue mode. For an explanation of the college’s color-coded operating modes, please visit Status & Operating Modes. 

Over the past seven days, there have been three positive cases of COVID-19 reported through the on-campus campus screening program. For more data on the screening program, please visit Coronavirus Screening.

The Smith community continues to do a very good job following COVID-19 prevention rules. Our low case rates are a testament to this work!

The number of cases continues to decrease across the country, in Massachusetts and in Northampton. Smith administrators participate in a bi-weekly call with the Massachusetts Department of Public (DPH) for higher education. The DPH reminded us that despite these drops, case rates and community transmission remain high. In addition, the UK and South African variants have been found multiple times in Massachusetts. So please continue to keep up all of your good work to follow COVID-19 safety rules including distancing, wearing a mask and washing hands.  Keeping our guard up now will continue to push case rates lower. 

Campus Updates and Reminders

  • All students, staff and faculty approved to be on campus for the fall semester must wear their Culture of Care lanyards at all times.

  • Residential students are not permitted to visit any other resident’s room while the college is in blue mode.  

  • All participants in the asymptomatic testing program are expected to use the PolicyPath application to receive test results and document daily health practices. More information is available at https://sites.google.com/smith.edu/digital/policypath. 

  • The Campus Center cafe will remain closed through blue mode. 

UMass Update

UMass changed their status to “Elevated” this past Friday as the number of detected new cases has fallen in their campus community. You can view the UMass COVID Dashboard at this link. 

Building Access

Academic building hours have had hours extended into the evening and weeks during Blue Mode. These are listed here (please scroll down).

Vaccine Information

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has updated its vaccination eligibility under Phase 2 to include, effective immediately:

The vaccine is safe, effective and free.

Because of limited vaccine supplies, appointments may be difficult to obtain. The Commonwealth has set up a website to assist residents in locating a vaccination site. While Smith College has applied to assist in the vaccine rollout, no vaccines are currently available here at Smith. We will notify our community immediately should that change. 

Please send any questions to covid19info@smith.edu.

COVID-19 Incident Response Team (CIRT)
covid19info@smith.edu



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