Oberlin College Updates

Between Dec. 6 and Dec. 12, the College’s internal testing documented four COVID-19 cases among students. During the same period, the College was also notified of four new COVID-19 cases from outside testing sources.

Yesterday, the College held a booster clinic at Hales Gymnasium. All 480 clinic appointments were booked. Students who have received their booster shot can reupload their vaccine card to the Student Health Portal, and faculty and staff can upload theirs via a form on Oberview.

COVID-19 continued to spread on many college campuses this week, prompting Cornell, Georgetown, New York, and Princeton Universities to host more final exams online and close early for winter break after experiencing upticks in cases.

Oberlin has not experienced a similar rise in cases over the last reporting period. President Carmen Twillie Ambar reassured students that the College is continuing to modulate its COVID-19 approach according to guidance from public health officials.

“We need to move away from concern about cases and begin to focus on whether there were any serious illnesses or hospitalizations as a result of COVID,” President Ambar said in an ObieSafe video update to the campus community on Tuesday. “As always, we will continue to evaluate all of our policies and approaches with guidance from global, national, and local healthcare professionals.”

Ohio Updates

Ohio continues to experience a rise in COVID-19 cases. Between Nov. 18 and Dec. 16, the state of Ohio recorded 177,593 new cases and 6,545 hospitalizations. Currently, there are 783.2 cases per 100,000 Ohio residents, up from 718.5 last week and 601.1 two weeks ago.

High rates of COVID-19 cases are stretching hospital resources across the state, with hospitalization rates reaching near-record levels for the entire pandemic. About 47 percent of COVID-19 cases are located in the greater Cleveland, Akron, and Canton areas.

On Tuesday, Cleveland Clinic announced that the hospital was nearly at capacity with 786 people hospitalized with COVID-19. Most patients are unvaccinated.

According to the Ohio Department of Health, the rise in COVID-19 cases is likely not caused by the newly discovered Omicron variant. From Nov. 21 to Dec. 4, 99.5 percent of cases were of the Delta variant while just 0.5 percent were of the Omicron variant.

Health officials are urging Ohioans to get vaccinated as soon as possible to avoid further upticks in cases that might occur as people travel and gather for the holidays.

Currently, 58.95 percent of Ohioans have received their first dose of a vaccine and approximately 54 percent of residents have completed both doses.