Karpilo

LA GRANDE — As the academic calendar progresses toward the end of February, COVID-19 case numbers at Eastern Oregon University have come to a stall.

The university, which experienced 182 cases throughout January, totaled just four cases during the period from Sunday, Feb. 13, through Feb. 20.

“Our employee numbers, as well as our student numbers, are going down,” said Vice President of Student Affairs Lacy Karpilo. “We’re still having cases, but it has dropped significantly.”

Cases among off-campus students remained at zero through the week-long period. The category saw the sharpest rise during the omicron spike and currently stands at 158 cases.

Cases among university employees rose from 52 to 55, while the total number of on-campus cases remained at 42 throughout the week.

“We’re still asking people to be mindful because it’s still out there and spreading, but we’re very excited to see it go down,” Karpilo said.

Karpilo noted that out of the limited cases in the last two weeks, no faculty of staff experienced hospitalizations or severe illness.

The university has made a big push to up testing efforts during the omicron spike, which Karpilo said will likely continue until numbers remain steady. EOU has distributed 2,778 COVID-19 tests for a 10.5% positivity rate.

During the last week, the university recorded one off-campus isolation/quarantine.

In lieu of the state announcing it will lift the mask mandate at the end of March, Eastern will make that decision from within campus leadership.

“Our decision will be made just as every other decision has been made, partnering with our local health authority, seeing our numbers and the county numbers,” Karpilo said. “We’re going to use the same evidence-based process and then we’ll make our decision.”