By Casaan Whitney
The Scene staff
St. Louis Community College has switched even more of its in-person classes to online or live virtual lecture due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in the St. Louis region.
Only classes that can’t easily be transitioned because of the need for hands-on learning, such as painting, nursing or automotive, are still being held on campus with safety guidelines.
“So that’s fewer students in classes,” said Nez Savala, STLCC spokeswoman. “You have to wear a mask while you’re on campus in any capacity whether you’re a student, employee or visitor. Classrooms get cleaned … I mean, they were getting cleaned anyway, but they’re getting cleaned with sanitizing materials, personal protective equipment, that kind of thing now.”
At the beginning of fall semester, about 1,000 people were attending classes or working on all four campuses and other STLCC locations, according to officials. The recent transition reduced that number even more.
Some 14 students, faculty and staff at STLCC had recovered from COVID-19 as of Sept. 11, according to the college’s web-site. That had increased to 98 by Nov. 25. The number of active cases at any one time has ranged from six at the beginning of fall semester to 24 in early November to 10 in late November.
These figures don’t include the number of STLCC students, faculty and staff who reported positive test results to St. Louis County Health Department instead of the college, and it’s unknown how many of the 98 people who recovered from COVID-19 have returned to campus.
“About 65% of the classes that STLCC offered this fall were offered either live virtual lecture, online or some sort of hybrid,” Savala said. “Thirty-five percent of those classes had at least one on-campus component, so we have fewer students who are actually taking classes in person on campus, at least through this fall.
“So it’s possible that someone who recovered from COVID was taking classes on campus and is now well enough to return to campus. Before people can return to campus, though, they need to let us know that they’ve been medically cleared.”
In March, STLCC created a COVID-19 webpage, where students, faculty, staff and the public could get information about campus restrictions, procedures and other announcements. The college also formed a COVID-19 Incident Response Team with 20 members led by Hart Nelson, associate vice chancellor for workforce solutions. They guide decision-making and keep track of cases.
Savala referred several questions to Nelson, including how many positive COVID-19 test results have been reported by students, faculty and staff on each campus and how contact tracing is being handled by the college. Nelson didn’t keep an appointment to speak with The Scene on Tuesday and couldn’t be reached for comment later.
COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March. Since that time, Johns Hopkins University and Medicine has reported 60,186,902 cases worldwide and 12,727,447 in the United States, 1,417,319 deaths from COVID-19 worldwide and 261,636 in the United States as of Nov. 25.
In March, STLCC extended spring break for an extra week. Officials later made the decision to close all campuses, switch clas-ses to online and allow students who wanted to temporarily drop out of school to retake spring classes within a year at no charge. Campuses reopened in the fall with reduced numbers.
STLCC students, faculty and staff should report positive COVID-19 test results to the Incident Response Team directly at covid19@stlcc.edu or tell their instructors or supervisors, who can pass on the information.
“Any of us are asked to make sure that if we become aware that someone may have COVID or are exposed to COVID, we need to report right away so that the college is notified,” Savala said.