College of Medicine pandemic response Friday round-up – week of Dec. 28-31
College of Medicine leaders updated faculty, staff and students on Dec. 31 about the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic:
COVID-19 vaccine update: To date, Penn State Health has completed 4,000 vaccinations among its employees. All three Penn State Health acute care hospitals are in the process of distributing their allotments of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. A COVID vaccine call center team has been working to contact employees who are in the first groups of the organization’s staged vaccination framework and to schedule vaccine appointments. When the vaccine is available for you based on your group assignment, you will receive a call directly from our scheduling team to schedule your appointment.
Because vaccination is one of the best ways to minimize COVID-19 illness, everyone is strongly encouraged to learn about the vaccine and consider getting it when it becomes available to them. Penn State Health and College of Medicine employees are not required to receive COVID-19 vaccines, all of which are currently authorized for emergency use only.
Please take a moment to review the COVID-19 vaccine FAQs here or in the attached PDF.
University Fitness Center to remain closed until Jan. 18
With the continued high number of COVID-19 infection in our community as well as at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State College of Medicine leadership has decided to err on the side of caution to protect its members. Therefore, the University Fitness Center will remain closed until Jan. 18. We will continue to monitor the situation and will reopen when we feel the risk to members is minimal.
Student Update
Return COVID testing for all students: As previously communicated, all students will be required to complete a two-part COVID-19 testing protocol in order to return to COM facilities and educational activities following the winter break. This testing, which is being done through the University’s overall COVID-19 operations program, will be done in two parts:
- For Hershey-based students, the first will be a mail-in saliva-based PCR test followed by an in-person rapid antigen test at the University Fitness Center (details on latter testing will be forthcoming).
- For University Park-based students, the first and second test will be a mail-in saliva-based PCR test one week apart.
Please refer to the specific email communication you received from either Dr. Chuck Lang (grad students), Deanna Dubots (MD students), Caryn Stopper (PA students) or Dr. Mike McShane (UP students) on the dates you need to complete this testing to be cleared to return to on-campus educational activities.
Remote learning following the holidays for graduate studies students: Penn State has decided to delay the start of in-person classes and transition to a fully remote learning environment for the beginning of the spring 2021 semester. Per Dr. Eric Barron’s message, “Students in select professional programs will return to their campuses for in-person academic programs.” Therefore, medical and physician assistant students in the COM will resume their hybrid curriculum of in-person and remote learning as well as clinical rotations. Remote learning does apply to grad students taking classes but does not apply to grad students doing laboratory-based work. All classes for graduate students at the College of Medicine will be delivered remotely beginning on Jan. 19 and will continue remotely through Feb. 12. At this time, in-person classes are tentatively set to resume on Feb. 15. Graduate students will be permitted back in lab after the holidays in accordance with the College’s COVID-19 testing guidelines. We appreciate graduate faculty for their flexibility in shifting from in-person to remote learning in the first part of the spring semester.
In case you missed it
Click below to view the Pandemic Response Email from previous weeks:
If you're having trouble accessing this content, or would like it in another format, please email the Penn State College of Medicine web department.