COVID-19 Up­date: Bethel Down­grades to Blue Risk Level

MISHAWAKA—Bethel's ef­forts to sup­press COVID-19 are look­ing up. Ac­cord­ing to Vice Pres­i­dent for Stu­dent De­vel­op­ment Shawn Holt­gren, the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion is far bet­ter than some of the sit­u­a­tions from last se­mes­ter. 

“This se­mes­ter, so far, night-and-day bet­ter than last se­mes­ter, as far as cases and co­or­di­na­tion,” Holt­gren said. 

As of Fri­day, Feb. 12, there were zero cases for staff and fac­ulty for at least 12 days and Bethel an­nounced to its stu­dents that it was mov­ing to the Blue Risk Level. Bethel has worked hard to­wards the mit­i­ga­tion of the virus on cam­pus proper and with the stu­dent body as a whole. Holt­gren ap­pre­ci­ates the peo­ple who are as­sist­ing in ef­forts to hold down the sever­ity of the num­ber of cases by fol­low­ing or­ga­ni­za­tional guide­lines.  

“I want to give a shout out to our own peo­ple who are tak­ing it se­ri­ously and do­ing the things we asked,” Holt­gren said. “It’s very in­con­ve­nient and not op­ti­mal, but they’re help­ing us stay open and face-to-face.” 

The peo­ple di­rectly in­volved with over­see­ing COVID-19 safety are part of the COVID re­sponse team. Ac­cord­ing to Julie Beam, the dean of stu­dents, the team co­or­di­nates and man­ages the day-to-day cir­cum­stances. This COVID re­sponse is led by the ef­forts of Andie Van­Him­ber­gen, RN, BSN, the school nurse and Sarah Hauck, head ath­letic trainer and ad­junct fac­ulty. The team looks to con­tinue in this pat­tern of min­i­mal to no cases. 

Bethel has just en­tered the Blue Risk Level; de­tails about this level can be found at bethelu­ni­ver­sity.edu/​inthe­know. This page can also be ac­cessed by click­ing on the or­ange tab la­beled “Coro­n­avirus (COVID-19) Up­dates” at the top of Bethel Uni­ver­si­ty’s main web­site, bethelu­ni­ver­sity.edu.  

Beam says that Blue Risk Level is a good place to be, but that we can­not get ahead of our­selves. 

“[The num­bers] could change by the minute,” Beam said. 

Stay­ing vig­i­lant about be­ing safe is the best course of ac­tion. Ac­cord­ing to the cur­rent Bethel Sta­tus Re­port, Blue COVID-19 Risk Level states that the cam­pus is low risk but must have in­creased readi­ness on the part of the stu­dents and fac­ulty. 

Bethel has also looked to the CDC for more in­for­ma­tion for COVID-19 stip­u­la­tions, in­clud­ing the short­ened quar­an­tine times. The time of quar­an­tine will be 10 days from last ex­po­sure or 7 days from last ex­po­sure with a neg­a­tive test re­sult.  

Bethel has also started test­ing on cam­pus. There is an RV set up on cam­pus for the pur­pose of COVID-19 test­ing ac­cord­ing to Julie Beam. The test­ing will oc­cur on Mon­days and Fri­days from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. and on Wednes­days from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.