Today, 4 September, St George’s University (SGU) released the results of the Covid-19 screening on campus.
SGU screened over 3,500 students, faculty, staff, significant others, vendors, and contractors on campus with gold-standard nasal and saliva PCR testing, which are extremely sensitive and specific when detecting individuals who are currently infected with the virus.
The screening programme has detected a total of 15 members of our SGU community as laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 positivity. In addition, 3 individuals have recently reported mild symptoms and tested positive when a rapid antigen test was conducted. Therefore, the screening programme revealed a very low prevalence of less than one half of one percent (0.5%) among the entire SGU community.
The affected individuals who reside off-campus are in self-isolation and are asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms. None of these individuals have been hospitalised. They are receiving the relevant support as SGU takes all the necessary steps to ensure the health, safety, and well-being of the community. SGU continuously reminds all students, faculty and staff to comply with the government regulations and to protect their health and safety.
SGU protects and values the privacy of all members of the SGU community. In accordance with health privacy laws, no information regarding the identity of the impacted individuals, their relatives or related details will be shared with the public. The health and safety of SGU students, faculty, staff, and the Grenadian community remain our primary concern.
SGU has a dedicated team mobilised to support the contact tracing efforts of Grenada’s Ministry of Health, which are guided by Grenada’s Public Health (Covid-19) Regulations and Quarantine Act. This team is focused on tracking and notifying any members of the SGU community who may have been in contact with the individuals who tested positive for Covid-19. The results of our testing and tracing efforts have been reported to the Ministry of Health and have been included in the Covid-19 update dashboard.
“All SGU students, faculty and staff on campus are vaccinated and while a small proportion of vaccinated individuals may become infected with Covid, infections among vaccinated individuals tend to be mild,” said Dr Richard Liebowitz, Vice Chancellor of St George’s University. “According to the CDC, Covid-19 vaccines are extremely effective against severe disease and death from variants of the virus that cause Covid-19, including the Delta variant.”
The University’s leadership views any breach of Grenada’s Public Health (Covid-19) Regulations and Quarantine Act very seriously and will take disciplinary action when appropriate, in addition to the actions of local authorities.
SGU remains deeply committed to its comprehensive plan to stop the virus spread on campus and in the Grenadian community. SGU maintains its position requiring all students, faculty, and staff on campus to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
SGU is communicating frequently with its students, faculty, and staff about steps to take for Covid-19 infection prevention and management on and off campus. All members of the SGU community are required to support testing and tracing efforts and self-isolating in quarantine if they have been asked to do so.
SGU will observe all government directives and protocols to maintain the safety of the campus and broader community. Individuals, communities, and healthcare providers in Grenada and around the world continue to confront the challenges of Covid-19, and we are committed to doing our part to prioritise the health, safety, and support of our SGU community while undertaking measures to help slow the spread of Covid-19 in Grenada.
SGU
SGU presents itself as outside of any jurisdiction. SGU you have an obligation to provide STATISTICS as to how many persons who tested POSITIVE on your campus are fully vaccinated, as in more than 21 days post secondary vaccination. Age group of persons testing positive. This data does NOT breach any privacy rules. You must also disclose if they were in fact unvaccinated.
It’s time to start focusing on what we as Grenadians should be doing to stop the spread of the virus and end the negative remarks some of which have no backbone for support. SGU is taking strict measures to curb the virus. Think, this is a business, no business operator would jeopardize his or her source of income. When we send out negative reports on media sites what would those outside of Grenada say? Come on, let’s start getting serious and deal with the real issue on hand.
More Grenadian conspiracy theorists on Facebook, alleging the numbers testing positive at SGU is much higher than published. They say “they have heard from alleged staff members at SGU”. Will they ever cease with their misinformation?
Are they doing daily checkins with each person using a Nurse to followup on symptoms and progression of the virus in ach of these infected persons and providing the necessary care when their health deteriorates so they get appropriate medical support?
The hospital certainly cannot do that. The RGPF is not following up on their own persons who are positive, in isolation with NO MEDICAL OVERSIGHT.
There is NO EMERGENCY medical assistance on Grenada as so sadly witnessed by that poor woman who needed help at foodland recently and no doctor or nurse from the health centre close by would come to her aid.
People have still died from so-called “mild” cases of covid, you can still get health complications from covid that stay even when the main symptoms are gone.
Prevent covid, mild cases can do you harm too.
This just proves the benefits of vaccinating. Only 0.4% of 3,500 tested positive. What can’t speak can’t lie.
Now let’s wait for what garbage the anti vaxxers have to say about this.
I am definitely not an antivaxxer but I find that suspiciously low. When I hear on CNN that in some states 70% of tested people are positive, how that number is so low. Even island wide we are about to reach 1% soon. Can it be that the university is a very exclusive circle and that the people responsible there want to keep their baby clean in the eyes of the public???
All the people tested are vaccinated & mostly young & fit. The high figures you are quoting are from the Trumpist states in USA where vaccination rates are very low.
So true, anthony saline. AND, SGU screened. They tested Everyone. You’re on campus – you get tested. Whereas, the people who sought testing in Trump-land did do because they were unwell.That’s not an apples to apples comparison. That’s apples to manioc. Thomas called the SGU figures “suspicious”, based on what he heard from CNN. I am suspicious Thomas did not do O Level Common Sense, much less Biostatistics.
And, on a completely different topic, may I again remind everyone that “Doctor” Modica, the SGU Chancellor, is not a doctor.
I spoke to an SGU student yesterday who did not receive any testing. They did not say they tested all persons, they said they tested over 3,500.
Anyone with a PHD is entitled to be addressed as Doctor. Most medical doctors do not have a PHD.
You’re also forgetting that SGU students don’t interact with all of Grenada regularly. Most students stay on or near campus and use SGU buses 90% of the time. Also, I know that as a student I literally ask taxi drivers if they are vaccinated and have even done so the few times I ate out or ordered takeout. None of us want to go back to online learning, or go through another evacuation so we are motivated.
Great to hear this good news. Keep it up!