The last wave!

Dear Texas Woman’s Community,

I hope this message finds you well as we wind down the third week of classes.

I am writing to extend our de-densifying efforts that I described in "Fall plans to flatten the curve" (Aug. 13) for another week, giving our surveillance testing program time to layer into our mitigation strategy.

Daily case counts have begun to decline in Dallas and Harris counties (14-day changes of -44% and -57%, respectively). Denton county is effectively level (14-day change of +1%), but daily deaths are still up significantly for all three counties (14-day changes of +29%, +18%, and +15% for Dallas, Harris, and Denton, respectively), as historically, death rates lag the case-counts curve. The models we use show our community’s efforts to flatten the curve are working, and adding in the three-campus COVID-19 Proactive Testing Program next week will make even more of a difference.

We will plan for a return to normal density by the week of Sept. 20, though Risk Management and my leadership team will closely monitor developments. In any case, we will continue the three-campus proactive testing program, strongly suggest the continued use of mask-wearing indoors, and build on the successes of our Community of Immunity Challenge.

The enthusiasm of students, faculty, and staff when back together in person has been infectious. I have loved being around you all as I am able, and I look forward to more of it soon. For now, I appreciate your patience and care for each other. We thought we had this pandemic behind us once; let’s make this the last wave!

With a pioneering spirit,

Carine M. Feyten, Ph.D.
Chancellor and President

Page last updated 11:59 AM, February 16, 2022