By Harley Nefe
Appalachian State University resumed its face-to-face instruction today after temporarily moving all classes online from Jan. 19 to Feb. 1 to reduce opportunities for COVID-19 exposure.
Now, 24% of the spring semester classes are being taught in person and 76% are being taught remotely or with hybrid (mixed) formats.
Students with residence hall contracts began returning to campus on Thursday, Jan. 28 and move-ins continued through Sunday, Jan. 31. These students’ housing fees were prorated according to when they moved in. Residence hall occupancy is currently at 61%.
Before returning to campus, students who live in residence halls were required to submit a negative COVID-19 test within seven days of arrival to campus. They are also required to take a follow-up on-campus COVID-19 test.
The latest data from App State’s dashboard shows 5,024 COVID-19 tests have been conducted on campus since Jan. 1, and of those tests, 132 were positive, which is 2.6%. During last week alone, App State conducted 923 tests and had 19 positive results, or about 2%. App State currently has 37 active COVID-19 cases, 1 employee and 36 students.
According to a university update from Jan. 29, university personnel do expect to see positivity rates rise some as students have returned, but students, faculty and staff have demonstrated that they follow the on-campus COVID-19 prevention measures. There has been no documented classroom transmission of COVID-19.
Throughout the spring semester, App State will be offering free COVID-19 testing for students, faculty and staff each Wednesday and Saturday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. located at the Legends parking lot at 190 Hardin Street. For more information, visit https://www.appstate.edu/go/coronavirus/testing/.