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Wednesday, December 15, 2021

Uh Oh Omicron! Are We Going Back to the Future?

If Omicron has hit Cornell, can we be far behind? From CNN:

Cornell University reported 903 cases of Covid-19 among students between December 7-13, and a "very high percentage" of them are Omicron variant cases in fully vaccinated individuals, according to university officials. The school's Covid-19 dashboard was updated late Tuesday afternoon, accounting for the jump in case numbers reported. "Virtually every case of the Omicron variant to date has been found in fully vaccinated students, a portion of whom had also received a booster shot," said Vice President for University Relations Joel Malina in a statement.

As of result, the school has decided to shut down its Ithaca, New York, campus, where it has about 25,600 students. The university will move final exams for the semester online, cancel all activities and athletics and close the libraries, President Martha Pollack wrote in a letter to the student body posted Tuesday...

The school has a mandatory vaccination policy for students, with exemptions for religious or medical issues. All unvaccinated students and many vaccinated students are required to take part in surveillance testing. Mask wearing indoors is compulsory...

Full story at https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/12/14/us/cornell-university-covid-cases/index.html.

The Regents' Health Services Committee is meeting today. We'll see if there is discussion of this development.

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