Oberlin College Updates
At the start of the semester, Oberlin had a slight surge in COVID-19 cases. From Sept. 2–8, 31 positive rapid tests were self-reported to ObieSafe. From Sept. 16–22, this figure decreased to 10.
In an Aug. 22 email, ObieSafe stated that students must have an updated COVID-19 booster from either Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech. ObieSafe also stated that masks would be optional but recommended throughout the first weeks of the semester.
“While Lorain County is not currently in the high-spread category, ObieSafe will be monitoring the statistics closely,” the email reads.
ObieSafe has not updated vaccination statistics since Sept. 26, 2022. The total campus booster rate, including students, faculty, and staff, was reported to be 81.5 percent.
Ohio Updates
Official updates from the State of Ohio COVID-19 Dashboard indicated that there were 1,570 cases, 37 hospitalizations, and 0 deaths from COVID-19 within Lorain county from Sept. 1–27. In the whole state, there have been 15,616 cases, 308 hospitalizations, and 9 deaths within that same time frame.
Although many testing programs have ended throughout the country, monitoring wastewater by determining the number of present SARS-CoV-2 gene fragments has been a way to consistently track COVID-19 and its mutations quickly. According to the Ohio Wastewater Monitoring Network, Lorain Black River Wastewater had a dark gray arrow, which indicated that levels were steady. From Aug. 29–Sept. 5, the N2 gene average rose from 12,597 to 40,715. These numbers decreased slightly to 20,850 by Sept. 10. By Sept. 14, the 7 day moving average cases was 11.
This trend was also observed in the MGC, or million gene copies. MGC per day Aug. 29 was 520,000, doubled to about 1,100,000 MGC by Sept. 5, and went down to 490,000 MGC by Sept. 10.
The most dominant strain of COVID-19 in the U.S. is EG.5, the Eris strain, which is significantly more transmissible and is estimated to be responsible for 21.5 percent of new cases. The newest strain has been the highly mutable BA.2.86, or the Pirola variant, which has been reported in 10 states, including Ohio.
