Behind the scenes: managing COVID

Like other universities across the country, the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) has been working to keep students, faculty, and staff safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Behind the scenes, this job has been the responsibility of a team of experts called ‘The Covid Task Force’. Its 11 members represent individuals from across the institution. Alex Bako is the Director of Risk Management at UDC and a prominent member of the team.

“The active individuals are me, our nurse, the chief of staff Dr. Guillory, human resources, somebody from student development service, a police officer, and a couple of guests from the employer union,” Bako said.

The work is ongoing and the team meets weekly, on Wednesdays, to discuss positive cases, as well as problems related to clearance for students, staff, and faculty who tested positive for COVID, to return to campus. Information is collected daily through self-reporting. The results are checked in the morning and at night. 

The decision to temporally close UDC and go to remote learning, when COVID first started in 2020, as well as the reopening plan, were the first sets of policies Bako developed following CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines. With the pandemic data changing over time, more policies have been developed. 

UDC Rise is the website developed to display data and statistics regarding COVID at UDC. It provides students, staff, and faculty with all the latest information and information from previous semesters regarding the spread of COVID at UDC. The two dashboards show the new positive covid cases (7-day period) and the cumulative positive cases since August 23, 2022. The same dashboards are shown for the Fall 2021 semester. At the bottom of the page, a D.C. COVID-19 statistics hyperlink provides all kinds of information and data regarding the district. 

“Now that the policies are in place we adjust them,” Bako said. “For example, we found that it is proved that some people can have a result positive for COVID for up to two months on a PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) test, something that doesn’t happen on rapid tests, so if before we were requiring a negative PCR, to be able to go back on campus, starting February 10 we accepted negative rapid tests to satisfy the purpose of clearance.”

With the shifting landscape, the task force is keen to make sure that the UDC community is informed and always up to date with the latest statistics, regulations, and policy changes. It holds monthly virtual COVID Town Hall meetings and sends emails every two weeks.

“Recently we have been focused on our new test site, across the street of 4225 Connecticut which is up and running, but we won’t know how long that will go on,” Bako said. “A lot of people see it as an encumbrance while others see it as a benefit, we are just trying to keep  things as safe as possible.”

In case someone tests positive for COVID, the testing site will directly notify the task force and report it to the D.C. health department. Students and staff who get tested outside school can report their positive COVID status to [email protected]. 

“I hear about positive cases from many sources, sometimes through human resources too, but most are self-reported at once,” Bako said. 

The team also hopes to provide the UDC community with home testing kits so that members can take the test in the comfort of their homes and send the result [to COVID confidential] instead of going on site.

“Besides the reports, I get from those who have a weekly mandatory COVID test, like student-athletes [the] law school, and housing, I don’t think I am getting reports from everybody who tested positive,” Bako said. “For this reason, I don’t feel that the numbers accurately reflect the true number of students that probably had COVID plus I spend a lot of time chasing students for their clearances COVID test.”

The university mandated that everyone receive two doses of the vaccine. And in spring 2022, 98% of people had done so, while 2% were exempted for medical or religious reasons. 

UDC students, faculty, and staff were also required to upload proof of the booster vaccination on the student health portal to be able to access campus and its services. 

Zackary Tamimi, a non-degree student, completed the process immediately. “It was pretty easy, I went through a simple process of scanning my card and just uploading it directly,” said, “there wasn’t too much complication to it, it was super simple.”

While some students have already uploaded their proof of the booster vaccination, others are in the process of completing the new requirement, including getting a third shot 

“I haven’t gotten a booster shot yet, but I will be going with another week or two, and then I am gonna submit the document to the health student or health department,” Aliyah Liudsay, a psychology major student, said

Although the deadline to submit proof of the booster vaccination was Jan. 31, the department of health and safety officials are giving students more time to complete the requirement and require that students wear masks while on campus.

“I agree with UDC 100% and I am glad UDC is not ‘oh if you are vaccinated you don’t have to wear a mask’ I am glad that’s not the policy so I am 110% with UDC on that one,” Liudsay said. 

While some students completely agree with UDC COVID policies, some are hoping for more flexibility in terms of certain classes for certain major programs.

“I am in a video editing and production program, and even if classes should be in person, some professors keep them online, so it’s very difficult to not have that opportunity to get a hands-on educationand really wearing the equipment and learning how to operate in the field.”Tamimi said.

In addition to the policies to stop the spread of COVID, UDC is encouraging students to get tested every week through the school or on their own.

For information about the university’s COVID response visit https://www.udc.edu/rise/