By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Ben Batey, Bowling Green State University’s chief health officer, is urging everyone to get vaccinated.
In his weekly update he noted that the number of COVID-19 cases is up slightly, and that reflects what’s going on in the county, region, and state.
On Tuesday in his remarks to BGSU Faculty Senate, Batey described the situation as a race between the push to get people vaccinated and the spread of variants of the coronavirus. This is happening as “people feel more comfortable gathering.”
While the uptick locally has been slight, neighboring Michigan has experienced more significant increases, and this could spill over into Northwest Ohio.
These trends, he said, need to be reversed if the state is going to be able to loosen its regulations on gatherings and allow summer events to go forward.
“Vaccinations are best way to reverse that trend,” Batey said.
In talking with people who tested positive during the university’s rapid testing last week, he said in his weekly update, that many of them reported putting off getting vaccinated. In hindsight, they wished they’d gotten vaccinated when they had the chance.
BGSU is holding its second round of mass vaccinations on campus for students this week, and there are ample opportunities for those in the community to get the shot.
Last week’s mass vaccination clinic in the BGSU Field House had 5,000 appointments.
This is part of the university’s initiative to get as many students as possible vaccinated before they leave campus. A greater emphasis is being placed on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which requires only one shot.
Even after one dose, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are about 80 percent effective, he said.
This week’s BGSU dashboard shows 34 new COVID-19 cases reported. That’s up from 24 last week.
Of those testing positive, 30 were students, 74 percent of whom live off campus, and one is a faculty member and three are staff. Six students who tested positive are isolated in university housing and one student who was exposed is in quarantine in campus housing.
Since the beginning of the semester, BGSU has reported 422 cases – 362 students, eight faculty, and 52 staff.
The university conducted 864 tests between March 29 and April 4, and found 17 cases, just shy of a 2-percent positivity rate. The state rate for that period was 4.3 percent.
Since the beginning of the year, BGSU has tested 16,007 symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals, and found 437 cases, a 2.7-percent positivity rate.
