Delta College is quickly approaching an Oct. 15 vaccine mandate set in August by the board, which will impact students and staff.
Ambiguous only a few weeks ago, details have emerged on the “how” since the Sept. 21 Board of Trustees meeting where contact tracing was also discussed at length.
The plans stem from an Aug. 17 meeting where the eight-member board voted to mandate the Covid-19 vaccination for all students and employees. The process involves vaccinations, contact tracing, testing, and ongoing reporting after Oct. 15.
“We’re going to be contracting with ReturnSafe case management for students,” said Director of Information Technology and Data Center Services Dr. Chelsy Pham during the Sept. 21 board meeting. “This allows us to automatically understand who is a contact as defined by the CDC, which is a 15 minutes in a 24-hour period.”
The tracing tool resembles a ID badge attached with a lanyard, which traces the surroundings of people within 15 minutes that automatically updates their profile if the person came in contact with Covid-19.
Information about getting a badge was sent to staff on Oct. 8.
There are plans for student distribution events Oct. 11 through Oct. 14 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Danner Hall.
Students are being encouraged to wear the badges, particularly since the technology allows users to be informed if they are exposed to Covid-19.
“We’re going to be using them very soon after this is going to get start to get implemented once it’s approved by the board,” said Pham.
The contact tracing has been talked about since summer.
“We paused on actually executing on that because that was when during like the June 15 period where we thought Covid was going to go away,” Pham told the board. “And then we didn’t execute on that contract, but as we got the Delta Variant and things are numbers were getting bad again we were going to kick this off, and then another comment was made to why don’t we do students, at the same time, so we want to just go ahead and do like a big bang and do a push everybody wants.”
The board approved contact tracing 8-0.
Delta College is mandating full vaccination for students taking campus-based classes in Spring 2022.
“My efforts before I think in this case because of because we’re in an unusual circumstance with Covid and we, as board, voted to have people vaccinated. I think that this is an area where we really need to pass this. Will definitely pass this because it will further delay some student enrollment and we don’t need that. But we need to get on this very quickly, because we didn’t have a mandate,” said Trustee Janet A. Rivera.
All staff are also required to get vaccinated unless a medical or religious exemption is approved. Staff can be placed on leave if out of compliance.
Students at Delta College are aware of the required vaccinations for Spring 2022, specifically from outreach by the college
“But now that it’s required, everyone can get their vaccine in order to be on campus, I agree with that choice. With what Delta is doing, I am more safe with their choices and what they are planning. I think they are organized or professional of what they think about their students,” said Heidi Garcia, a Delta College student in the business major.
Vaccination is a precaution according to one student.
“To me, yeah I think it’s important, because students they should be in a safe environment. Get vaccinated so hopefully, if they catch Covid, they don’t get really severe symptoms. So they don’t have to suffer through a loss of a family member or given to someone who has an underlying health issues,”said Gael Franco, a Delta College student in the biology major.
Clarification of the details during the Oct. 5 board meeting for mandated vaccines and tracing also include on-campus testing for employees who have exemptions or are in the process of being vaccinated.