Effective today–Thursday, April 7–Georgetown University’s main and medical center campuses temporarily reinstated indoor masking policies. According to GU Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Ranit Mishori, this policy change was set to mitigate a significant increase in COVID-19 cases, especially among on-campus undergraduate students.
This change comes two weeks after Georgetown’s new Mask-Optional policy was instituted on March 21st. Since the week of March 6th, Georgetown’s campuses have seen the positivity rate more than triple. However, administrators have not explicitly attributed this trend to the change in policy; Dr. Mishori instead linked this increase to the newly dominant BA.2 strain of the Omicron variant in the U.S., which studies show is much more transmissible than the initial Omicron variant.
Administrators have also voiced concern over the University Hotel isolation space nearing capacity. Some students are being asked to share a hotel room or isolate in their residence, resulting in instances where students testing negative and positive are living in the same room or apartment. In response, the administration has secured additional space in a nearby hotel for overflow isolation.
Luckily, the symptoms of those with positive cases have been relatively mild, and although isolation numbers remain high, there are currently no hospitalized students. Additionally, the administration has given the go ahead for all on-campus events to proceed normally, so long as students follow the new masking requirements.
With the new guidelines in place, everyone will be required to wear a mask indoors unless in their personal residence or private office, as well as while eating or drinking. Additionally, all undergraduate students must take a PCR test through OneMedical on-campus test sites upon returning from Easter Break unless they have tested positive in the last 90 days.
Campus has been extremely divided over the new change in policy. Students have taken to their sides in the masking debate, using GroupMe chats to voice their opinions. Some students argue that the change is completely necessary to protect staff and immunocompromised students, while others believe the change to be inconvenient and unnecessary. A protest against the reinstatement of the mask policy is expected to be held outside of Healy Hall on the afternoon of April 7th, moving the conversation off the screen. Regardless of what stance taken, many students also find the arguing on both sides to be unproductive.
Although designated as temporary, administrators have not specified a timeline for the policy change; however, it will likely remain in place for the foreseeable future, or at least until cases fall back to previous levels.
