COVID-19 Up­dates

MISHAWAKA- On Wednes­day, Jan. 19 Bethel Uni­ver­sity made the tran­si­tion to their Yel­low or Mod­er­ate COVID-19 risk level. The cam­pus had pre­vi­ously been un­der the Blue level but due to an in­crease in COVID-19 cases, they moved to the yel­low level. Ac­cord­ing to Shawn Holt­gren, the Vice Pres­i­dent for Stu­dent De­vel­op­ment, the cam­pus’ tran­si­tion be­tween risk lev­els de­pends on the num­ber of cases both on the cam­pus and in the sur­round­ing area. 

Holt­gren said, “A move from Blue to Yel­low of­ten means that we have cam­pus cases in the teens or low 20s.”   

Pre­cau­tions for the Yel­low level in­clude wear­ing masks in larger in­door gath­er­ings. Stu­dents should al­ways have a mask with them. Lim­it­ing the size of in­door gath­er­ings. These guide­lines and pro­to­cols can be found on the Bethel Uni­ver­sity web­site. 

Holt­gren said that the best ways for stu­dents to help limit the spread of COVID-19 on our cam­pus is to “prac­tice hand­wash­ing, wear­ing a mask in high con­gested ar­eas on cam­pus (in­clud­ing des­ig­nated ar­eas like classes, chapel, and sport­ing events), dis­tanc­ing when pos­si­ble, and gen­eral avoid­ance of highly pop­u­lated ar­eas when pos­si­ble. Also, stu­dents should iso­late if not feel­ing well and con­tact the cam­pus nurse for ad­di­tional guid­ance.”