RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney has sent a letter to the 4 write-up-secondary institutions in the metropolis to request they look at mandating that all students and team obtain and install the state’s publicity notification smartphone app “COVIDWISE.”
The letter, sent Thursday, was sent to the presidents of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Virginia Union College (VUU), the University of Richmond (UR), and Reynolds Local community College or university.
“[I]n the interest of the overall health and security of the whole town, I strongly advise your administration make the installation of COVIDWISE, the state’s non-invasive, lifestyle-preserving contact tracing application, obligatory for all students and staff members,” wrote Stoney.
CBS 6 has reached out to the institutions for comment on the mayor’s ask for.
“We are in agreement that the health and basic safety of our whole faculty neighborhood is of most important worry and we are getting each and every precaution. The COVIDWISE app website link seems on our website, amongst our other sources, for this goal,” wrote a spokesperson for Reynolds.
“VCU has communicated about the state’s COVIDWISE app by email and social media channels and it is recognized as an crucial well being and protection app we are encouraging our students to obtain.on the primary web page of our One VCU: Responsible Togetherm web site,” wrote a spokesperson for VCU.
Statewide, a spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Health and fitness said that as of August 20 the app has been downloaded 407,801 moments. They stated this is “an believed 9.6% of Virginians among the ages of 18-65 with a smartphone.”
Conditions on Campus
As college students start off to return to school for on-campus dwelling and some in-person classes, conditions of COVID-19 have been described at some of the place colleges.
UR’s COVID-19 dashboard reports six active circumstances as of August 18.
On Thursday, VCU documented 36 scenarios complete. 25 between learners and 11 among staff. It included that 8 of the scholar instances resulted from a get together.
Friday’s update to its COVID-19 dashboard showed no increase in the quantity of cases. But it enhanced the amount of contaminated students isolating on campus from 11 to 13 and increased the quantity of pupils quarantining on campus due to the fact of attainable exposure to the virus from 32 to 67.
CBS 6 questioned if the university was reconsidering the in-person courses and on-campus residing for the slide semester as a outcome of the positive tests.
“There are dozens of variables that could possibly affect any number of university functions which include the determination to changeover to remote studying and functioning,” wrote a VCU spokesperson in reaction. “VCU’s General public Health and fitness Reaction Staff and Incident Coordination Crew constantly assessment new rules from the CDC, VDH and our have medical and science authorities, in addition to screening facts and reviews of COVID-19 linked indications to make conclusions about each basic safety protocols and college functions.”
Months of Welcome Function Nonetheless Scheduled
VCU also confirmed it was still scheduling to hold a carnival on Saturday as part of its “Months of Welcome.” The carnival will be held on the a few-acre Cary Avenue Discipline “to ensure adequate bodily distancing”.
A spokesperson mentioned compared with earlier several years, the faculty is limiting attendance to 40-college students or fewer in 1 hour rotations. Students will have to register in advance for a spot and don a mask when attending. They add there will be kiosks for voluntary temperature checks.
They additional cleaning will come about immediately after every session.
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