Health reminders as we head into fall

Posted: September 25, 2021

We hope this message finds you doing well and staying healthy.

We wanted to provide a bit of guidance as we head into Homecoming and Family Weekend and for the rest of the semester.

We have had a strong and healthy start to the semester, but there are signs some are starting to drift from the behaviors that have kept us in-person for the past year. Not surprisingly, cases of COVID-19 are on the increase in the Erie community and as a result on our Erie campus.

If you are sick, report your illness through the LiveSafe app. Don’t have the app? Download it here. (For more about LiveSafe, read this.) LiveSafe is the fastest way to have your illness triaged by nurses from our Health Center. They will be able to help you assess your condition and, if necessary, they can schedule you for a free on-campus COVID-19 test.

If sick, stay home. Don’t go about your usual business. Reach out to our Health Center and await a nurse’s instruction for what you should do next. If you are faculty or staff, inform your supervisor. If you are a student, inform your professors so a plan can be developed. This may or may not include remote accommodations. This will be managed on a case-by-case basis by the course instructor.  

We are continuing to do contact tracing on all positive cases this fall. Please remember that vaccinated individuals who are considered “close contacts” do not need to quarantine unless they become symptomatic. However, they will be tested three to five days after exposure.

Our surveillance testing program is continuing for anyone – student, staff or faculty -- who is unvaccinated or for anyone who has not submitted their proof of vaccination to the Health Center. We have recently updated our lists and discovered a few individuals who have been overlooked for this program. Those individuals will be notified as early as today to register for their tests by 5 p.m. Monday.  

We are continuing to urge our Gannon community to be vaccinated and we are continuing to find ways to make vaccines available on campus. We are planning another vaccine clinic for Oct. 7 to provide second doses for those who attended the last clinic, booster doses of Pfizer for those who are immune-compromised, and first-time vaccinations with the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Remember that we are in this together. Our common purpose has been to look after the well-being of one another and to stay in community. We’ve worked hard to be face to face, even if we are still masked.

As a community, we have set protocols in place to create as safe an environment as possible.

The real difference in managing our health in a pandemic is how we manage our personal health behaviors and personal choices. We know the best advice: Wear a mask, keep your distance, avoid large gatherings -- particularly if they are indoors. Get vaccinated, if you are able.

It’s time to remind ourselves of these good approaches and commit to making our best choices.