This message is being sent to all Duke undergraduate students.
Thursday, March 18, 2021
Dear students,
It’s been quite a week. As we have travelled across campus in the past few days, we continue to be impressed by how you’ve rallied to take care—of yourselves and others—as we navigate the stay-in-place order.
We’re now 4 days in and we are seeing the improvement we had hoped from the undergraduate community. For testing conducted through Wednesday, we had 54 cases of COVID, down from 107 cases in the same period last week.
However, we’re not there yet so the stay-in-place order will remain unchanged through 9 a.m. Sunday, March 21.
During the next few days, continue to follow all guidance: wear your mask when you are around others, avoid gatherings of more than three people, complete your surveillance testing, report your symptoms and respond quickly and honestly to contract tracers.
As a reminder: students are expected to stay in Durham throughout the semester. Any students who must travel right now must also carefully adhere to return guidance as outlined on the Keep Learning page. Adherence to these return guidelines is crucial to our collective success. Thanks to those of you who registered their travel.
We remain cautiously optimistic that this pause will help us get through this uptick in COVID cases but we need you to stay vigilant. Let’s maintain the health of our fellow students and neighbors, and support our seniors on the way to graduation. Thanks again for all you’re doing and we’ll update you again on Saturday afternoon with more detail.
Go Duke,
Gary Bennett
Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education
Mary Pat McMahon
Vice Provost of Student Affairs
John Blackshear
Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students