Washington state changes COVID-19 higher ed rules in response to campus outbreaks
Washington State Governor Jay Inslee announced new requirements for higher education institutions in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’ve seen a significant increase in the COVID infections around congregate living quarters and social gatherings, particularly around our fraternities and sororities,” he said at a virtual press conference Tuesday. “We still believe that education can go forward safely, but that is only if we have some additional safety measures to protect not only students, but the larger community and their families from this pandemic.”
The governor’s proclamation in June said universities, colleges, technical schools and apprenticeship programs could resume in-person classes Aug. 1 as long as they followed certain requirements.
He said the changes: “will require masks at all times in living areas on campus, except outside or in sleeping areas.”
Congregate sleeping porches are not allowed, and “no more than two residents are allowed to share the same sleeping area,” Inslee said.
Visitors are limited to five people from outside the same household, “and common areas can have no more than five people in them at any given time,” he said, stressing the importance of masks and social distancing in such settings.
Another requirement is that meals on campus need to be grab-and-go, or at single tables.
And: “we are also requiring that colleges provide isolation and quarantine facilities to fraternities, sororities, and other group houses, students who live in shared housing in close proximity to campus, and students living in dorms, and personnel if they don’t have a place to go,” Inslee said.
Students can be charged for the cost associated with that, on a sliding scale, and schools without housing still need to work with local health authorities to have a plan for isolation and quarantine of students who can’t do so at home.
The governor noted there have been 35 outbreaks at colleges and universities, and that more than 800 cases are directly linked to congregate living or social gatherings “associated with campuses.”
Inslee said the state is averaging about 100 cases per 100,000 people over a two-week period, which is four times the goal.
He said that “we have knocked down this infection big time,” but that “we’ve got to continue this effort.”
He talked about the role that private social gatherings are playing. Even when people spend time in small groups in close proximity to one another without masks, he said, “what we’re finding is ... we end up having increased COVID transmission.”
COVID activity is increasing across the state, the country, and “in some sense” the world, Inslee said.
“We’re all tired of this virus, but this virus is not tired of us, and we’ve got more work to do,” he said.
This story was originally published October 20, 2020 at 2:33 PM with the headline "Washington state changes COVID-19 higher ed rules in response to campus outbreaks."
