COVID-19 Monitoring and Response Plan

According to the level of incidences of COVID-19 cases on campus, the University will adapt its operations as necessary using four Alert Levels. The thresholds or triggers for each level are explained below.

Level Zero: No health alert - following normal operations

• Vaccine or effective therapeutic treatment is widely available.
• No cases on campus, very few to no cases in Frederick County.

Level One: Low Level Health Alert (see Appendix for threshold data)

• Fewer than 40 confirmed and active student cases of the coronavirus (~2% of FT+PT UG population).
• Fewer than 32 confirmed and active residential student cases (~2% of Residential population).
• Campus isolation spaces at 50% or less capacity (28 out of 56 beds)
• Fewer than 3 confirmed and active seminarian cases of the coronavirus (~2% of population).
• Fewer than 12 of employees with confirmed cases (2% of 620).
• Positive Test % (Positivity) in surveillance testing events less than 4%.

Potential Responses at Level One

The university will assume a Level One Health Alert for the first two weeks of the Spring 2021 semester until monitoring results can inform the Emergency Action Team. The university will continue to follow the health and safety protocols published in the Mount Safe webpages which includes isolation of COVID-19 cases and performing contact tracing. Wearing of masks and physical distancing are the main risk reduction measures that all employees, students and seminarians should be following.

Level Two: Heightened Level Health Alert (see Appendix for threshold data)

• 41 to 60 confirmed and active UG student cases of COVID-19 (2% to 3% of students)
• 33 to 50 confirmed and active residential UG student cases of COVID-19
• 28 to 55 campus isolation spaces in use for isolation cases (51% to 98% capacity)
• 3 to 6 confirmed and active seminarian cases of COVID-19
• 12 to 24 employees with confirmed cases (2 to 4% of employees)
• Positive Test % (Positivity) in surveillance testing events between 4-8%
• 4 weeks in a row of growth in cases (from community transmission)

Potential Responses at Level Two

The university may consider these additional risk reduction measures among other alternatives:

• Reduce or restrict the size of certain on-campus gatherings (e.g., lectures).
• Reduce or place further restrictions on athletic team practices and travel.
• Consider expanding the number of isolation spaces.
• Increase surveillance testing and contact tracing efforts.
• Reduce or restrict student club and other extra-curricular activities.
• Further restrict student travel off campus.
• Require commuter students to attend all classes remotely and not come to campus.
• Reduce further the number of students physically in classes.
• Move more employees to telework.

Level Three: Advanced Level Health Alert

• Greater than 60 confirmed and active student cases of the coronavirus.
• Greater than 50 confirmed and active residential student cases of the coronavirus.
• Greater than six confirmed seminarian cases of the coronavirus.
• Greater than 4% of employees with confirmed cases.
• Positive Test % (Positivity) in random surveillance testing greater than 8%.
• Five weeks in a row of growth in cases (from community transmission).
• Campus isolation spaces at or above 98% capacity (55 out of 56).

Potential Responses at Level Three

At Level Three, the university may consider these additional risk reduction measures beyond Level Two among other alternatives:

• Move all class instruction to remote delivery.
• Increase teleworking of employees.
• Stop all athletic team activities.
• Send students home for the remainder of the semester.

VII. Communication

All decisions and actions of the Emergency Action Team will be communicated first to the President’s Cabinet and, if necessary, to the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees.

The Director of Communications will develop and disseminate messages to the Mount Community regarding Emergency Action Team actions via email and social media.

The Mount Alert system may be used in emergency situations to inform the Mount Community of urgent matters.

Announcements about the health status of specific individuals is restricted by FERPA¹.

• FERPA prohibits educational agencies (e.g., school districts) and institutions (i.e., schools) from disclosing personally identifiable information (PII) from students’ education record without the prior written consent of a parent or “eligible student,” unless an exception to FERPA’s general consent rule applies. For instance, pursuant to one such exception, the “health or safety emergency” exception. Under the FERPA health or safety emergency exception, an educational agency or institution is responsible for making a determination, on a case-by-case basis, whether to disclose PII from education records, and it may take into account the totality of the circumstances pertaining to the threat.
• FERPA permits educational agencies and institutions to disclose, without prior written consent, PII from student education records to appropriate parties in connection with an emergency, if knowledge of that information is necessary to protect the health or safety of a student or other individuals.
• Typically, law enforcement officials, public health officials, trained medical personnel, and parents (including parents of an eligible student) are the types of appropriate parties to whom PII from education records may be disclosed under this FERPA exception.
• An institution may disclose information about a student’s illness to other students and their parents in the school community without prior written parental or eligible student consent ONLY if a student’s identity is not personally identifiable, whether through single or multiple releases, and taking into account other reasonably available information. One could announce that “a student on campus has tested positive for COVID-19” but one probably should not announce to a class “a student in this class has tested positive” because students likely would be able to figure out who it is based on their absence.
• Student information generally should not be released to the media. Under FERPA it should only be released to authorized Mount employees and relevant government officials, such as public health officials.
• See the full Department of Education document for details.

¹STUDENT PRIVACY POLICY OFFICE FERPA & Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) March 2020.

VIII. Partnering with State and County Health Departments

The Emergency Action Team and other university officials will remain in communication with the Maryland Department of Health and the Frederick County Health Department and will closely monitor their published guidance and requirements.

IX. Appendix

Fall Metrics at High Point

Week of 9/14/20

• 24 Active Cases (0.9% of total population of 2660; 1.6% of residential and Seminary population of 1500)
• 16 Active Cases on campus (0.6% of total population; 1% of residential and Seminary population)
• 34 Isolation beds in use - some for quarantine (64% of capacity (56 beds)); 16 beds would be 29%.

Note: 45% of cases isolated on campus; 55% of residential cases isolated on campus.

Return to Campus

• Six cases per 1,000 people in Maryland and in Mid-Atlantic region currently.
• Add 40% for asymptomatic cases that are not tested: 8.4 cases per 1,000.
• Returning students: 1,830 returning undergrads – 230 remote students + 160 Seminarians = 1,760.
• Out of 1,760 students returning, we can expect 8.4 * 1.76 = 15 cases.
• In August we had 23 positive cases out of 1,780 baseline tests (1.3%).

Conclusion: We can expect at least 20 cases in the baseline testing.