Brave New World

EdSource notes that campus authorities are hoping that the delta variant of the coronavirus* won't upset reopening plans for the fall: ...In the UC system, campus leaders are optimistic that it won’t be necessary to fully return to remote learning.

“If we need to make adjustments, we will,” said Sarah Latham, the vice chancellor of business administrative services at UC Santa Cruz. “However, we believe that the things we have in place will allow us to stick to our initial approach of in-person instruction and a highly residential experience.”

Even with vaccine mandates, UC campus leaders acknowledge that positive cases will occur. But they also anticipate that those cases won’t be as disruptive to campus life. Last year, any student in close contact with someone with a positive Covid-19 case needed to be quarantined. This year, that won’t necessarily be the case, largely because of vaccinations, but rules vary.

At UC Berkeley, vaccinated and asymptomatic students won’t need to be quarantined if they have been in close contact with an infected individual. They will only need to monitor their symptoms for two weeks and be tested for the virus following the exposure. The only people who have had close contacts who will need to quarantine are those who are unvaccinated or who show symptoms. A close contact is defined as anyone who is within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes.

In-person classes across the UC system may also be allowed to continue even if the class has been exposed to a positive case. At UC Irvine, for example, if a student tests positive and has been attending in-person classes, the only students who may need to quarantine are those who came into close contact with the infected student, said David Souleles, the director of Irvine’s Covid-19 response staff.

“Just because the case was in the room, it doesn’t mean everybody in the room automatically now has to quarantine or that the class has to be canceled,” he said. He added that those protocols could change on a case-by-case basis. If the campus notices, for example, that there are multiple positive cases from one classroom, the campus will consult the public health department in Orange County to determine the next steps...

Full story at https://edsource.org/2021/state-universities-reopen-in-person-will-delta-variant-push-students-back-to-zoom/660088.

As I recall, in Brave New World, the people were denoted by Greek letters: Alphas, Betas, etc.