The Health Center, located in the Driehaus Center, will continue their efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19 on campus this semester.
The University does not currently have a mask mandate in place and no longer requires students or faculty to be vaccinated per the state Governors rescinding of the mandate.
Katie Schlee, family nurse practitioner at the SXU Health Center, stated that, “SXU’s mitigation efforts have resulted in consistently low COVID-19 positivity rates.”
Schlee continued, “The Health Center continues to test students and employees who are symptomatic or exposed, and we continue to request that students and employees use the COVID-19 Reporting Form if they test positive for COVID-19.”
Students that do test positive for COVID-19, once they report it through the reporting form, must enter an isolation period until they test negative.
Schlee stated that, “SXU has some space for students to stay in if they test positive for COVID-19. We prioritize those spaces for students who are too far away from their primary residence to travel home to isolate.”
Students can still receive COVID-19 vaccinations and booster shots at the Health Center.
Schlee wrote that, “The Health Center has been administering COVID-19 vaccines since January of 2021 and we will continue to do so Monday through Friday.”
The nation’s current full vaccination rate is 68% of the people.
Schlee continued, stating that, “We believe that vaccination is one of the best things people can do to protect themselves from serious outcomes from COVID-19” and that, “The CDC is now anticipating that most people will be advised to receive an annual booster with the strain that is currently circulating, which is also how the flu shot works.”
As for the upcoming flu season, the Health Center will continue to receive flu shots as it has in years prior that will be available to the students, staff, and community members.
Schlee also stated that, “We are also fortunate that we received a grant from Alana’s Foundation for the third year in a row to offer a limited number of free flu vaccines to SXU students who have no insurance or who are out-of-network.”
Alana’s Foundation is an organization that works to prevent deaths caused by influenza.