Apr 14, 2022 - COVID

Howard University moves classes online amid COVID-19 rise

Chelsea Cirruzzo

A medical worker takes a nasal swab sample from a man for COVID-19 testing in Washington, D.C., — A medical worker takes a nasal swab sample from a man for COVID-19 testing in Washington, D.C. Photo: Ting Shen/Xinhua via Getty Images

Howard University will move its final days of classes online amid a rise in COVID-19 cases on campus.

Why it matters: Howard University is the latest school in the D.C. area to react to a rise in cases as the BA.2 variant, a more transmissible subvariant of Omicron, becomes the most dominant variant in the region.

American, Georgetown, George Washington, and Johns Hopkins universities have reinstated their mask mandates in recent weeks.

Details: In a Wednesday email to students, Howard's COVID-19 positivity rate has risen from 2% to 5% in the last week, corresponding with an increase in the number of students in quarantine.

Undergraduate classes will be held online starting Thursday through April 22. Masks are also required on campus.

By the numbers: D.C. has seen a steady uptick in its weekly COVID-19 case rate since the start of March. The BA.2 variant makes up more than 70% of sequenced cases.

According to DC Health, D.C. is now experiencing “medium” community transmission levels for the first time since the holiday Omicron surge subsided in February.
As of the week of April 3rd, D.C.’s COVID-19 weekly case rate was 204.2 cases per 100,000 residents. The weekly case rate the first week of March was 51 cases per 100,000 residents.

Yes, but: The weekly rate of new hospital admissions, which often lag behind the initial surge of cases, has not budged from zero since the week of March 20.

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Howard University moves classes online amid COVID-19 rise

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