Boston University COVID-19 Report: September 2 to 8
Photo by Cydney Scott
Boston University COVID-19 Report: September 2 to 8
Can’t find a COVID testing slot? Try scheduling a weekend appointment
Boston University publishes its COVID-19 testing data on a public-facing dashboard. With students returning to campus for the fall semester, Gloria Waters, BU vice president and associate provost for research, and Judy Platt, BU chief health officer and executive director of Student Health Services, will provide The Brink with occasional updates on the overall health of the BU community.
Between September 2 and 8, 44 Boston University students and 11 faculty and staff members tested positive for coronavirus. And as of September 8, according to BU’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard, 95 percent of students, 94 percent of faculty, and 90 percent of staff are fully vaccinated. The Brink asked Gloria Waters and Judy Platt to answer questions about how BU’s COVID-19 testing process is going at the start of the fall semester, and if they have noticed any new patterns of how the virus is spreading within the BU community.
Q&A
With Gloria Waters and Judy Platt
The Brink: How is the testing process going?
Waters: Many students have not been able to obtain testing slots [this week]—as a result we have increased the [number of] slots to accommodate students, and that will likely result in longer testing turnaround times [over the next couple of days].
The Brink: What caused the backup?
Waters: Right now, most people want to test on Monday or Tuesday, but we need people to book on other days—especially Friday, Saturday, Sunday. The availability of appointments has been impacted by no-shows—12 percent of appointments that students book are not used, and that appointment [utilization] is lost since it is too late for someone else to rebook it. If students realize they cannot attend a scheduled appointment, please cancel it so the slot can go to someone else.
The Brink: How else can people help keep testing moving smoothly?
Waters: Students need to book [their appointments for monitored testing] in advance—an appointment will likely not be available if they wait until the day of or day before. The system will allow them to book one appointment at a time, so once they have tested, they should immediately book their appointment for the next week. Students also need to show up at the [correct] time of their appointment so that the lab has a constant flow of samples across the day so that they can be processed most efficiently. Also, test on weekends whenever possible, even if that means booking an additional test this week to get on the weekend cadence.
The Brink: Has BU’s contact tracing or variant sequencing efforts identified any noteworthy trends in terms of COVID spread?
Platt: Nothing more than the usual: unmasked prolonged social events lead to COVID—whether you’re vaccinated or not!
The Brink: Have any new variants been detected at BU in the last few weeks?
Platt: We are awaiting more results, but all new cases have been the Delta variant so far.
The Brink: Has any evidence of transmission been linked to Move-in, BU-sanctioned events, or non-BU-sanctioned events within the community?
Platt: We noted plenty of new cases upon Move-in. None have been directly linked to a BU event or classroom as of yet.
The Brink: Anything else noteworthy—such as areas of concern or things that are going really well—related to COVID activity at BU and the start of fall semester?
Platt: With so much going on, and so many people new to campus, things are going pretty well. We have achieved amazing vaccination rates—huge thanks to our community.
Gloria Waters spearheaded teams of BU scientists in their development and deployment of a campus-wide COVID-19 testing program and mathematical modeling of community behavior. Judy Platt, chair of BU’s Medical Advisory Group, oversees clinical management and isolation of students and employees who test positive for coronavirus and helps manage BU’s contact tracing efforts. They are cochairs of BU’s Vaccine Preparedness Group, which is overseeing the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines allocated to BU by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
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