“However, to flatten the curve in the third wave that is now being talked about, we would like to stress certain points in this week’s report,” says Chief Security Officer Fredrik Blomqvist, who urges everyone to maintain a good physical distance to one another when it is necessary to meet in person on University premises.

“This is a matter of individual responsibility and our social distancing wardens and campus security staff are ensuring that people comply.

If you have been found to have contracted COVID-19 via the University or its facilities, you must report this fact to your line manager or the Duty Officer function. This is to enable the University to fulfil its responsibility as a public authority to file a serious incident report with the Swedish Work Environment Authority.

You are also requested to fill in and send a self-reporting form to the University. Reporting is anonymous and the information is used for active measures to prevent further transmission of infection.

Cooperation with the regional infection control unit has been stepped up again and targeted information will likely be sent to groups exposed to infection, asking them to get tested. Information/communications urging specific recipients to have a test will be initiated via regional infection control and channelled via the University’s coronavirus coordination function to the relevant disciplinary domain for further action.

The University plans to carry out the Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test on 13 March. Cooperation with regional infection control is ongoing aimed at ensuring an exam session with minimal risk of transmission.

Continue to maintain the correct distance

“Uppsala University would like in this status report to thank all students and staff who in a generally fantastic way are helping to keep the spread of infection down. As one of the largest actors in Uppsala County, we see with a certain pride that all the measures we have continuously taken at the University have clearly been effective in preventing/limiting the spread of infection at the University,” says Fredrik Blomqvist. However, he continues to stress that we all need to keep going and stay strong now in March, April and May to ensure that the third wave is as mild as possible. Continue to maintain the correct distance to people outside your own household.

Infection status report

To summarise the infection situation, as of 5 March there have been 607 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at Uppsala University since the start of the 2020 autumn semester.

This figure breaks down as follows:

  • 489 Bachelor’s and Master’s students – an increase of 21 cases.
  • 12 doctoral students – an increase of 1 case.
  • 106 members of staff – an increase of 10 cases.

If you are confirmed infected with COVID-19, the Communicable Diseases Act requires you to inform people who have been in your proximity and whom you may have infected.
Uppsala University has created an online procedure to help you do this anonymously.

If you are confirmed infected with COVID-19, it is very important that you make sure to stay at home: Do not go to campus, exam rooms or work. And keep up to date with the current rules of conduct.

Breakdown by disciplinary domain

The 468 Bachelor’s and Master’s students confirmed infected are distributed across the disciplinary domains as follows (change from previous week in parentheses):

  • Hum/Sam – 190 (+6) confirmed cases
  • Med/Farm – 225 (+8) confirmed cases
  • Tek/Nat – 74 (+7) confirmed cases

Managing confirmed infections in education

When an infection is confirmed, the disciplinary domain concerned deals with the question of whether teaching should continue to be conducted on campus (if that is currently being done) or whether there is reason to switch to online education. Region Uppsala carries out contact tracing and contacts the individuals deemed necessary in view of the contacts reported by the infected person. The University has no responsibility for this process.

Number of cases in Region Uppsala and Region Gotland.

Number of people confirmed infected in Region Uppsala: week 6 (8–14 February), 712; week 7 (15–21 February), 727; week 8 (22–28 February), 730.
Number of people confirmed infected in Region Gotland: week 6 (8–14 February), 27; week 7 (15–21 February), 15; week 8 (22–28 February), 32.
Source: Public Health Agency of Sweden

Number of people vaccinated in Uppsala County

On 3 March, 21,291 residents (+2,177) had received their first dose of vaccine and 10,970 (+1,542) of these had also received their second dose.

The Communicable Diseases Act requires:

If you are confirmed infected, the Communicable Diseases Act requires you to inform people whom you suspect you may have infected. As part of Uppsala University’s efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19 infection, the University has created an online procedure to help you do this anonymously.

To test or not to test

The infection control doctor in Uppsala County requests those who have been confirmed infected not to get tested again after recovering from COVID-19. Doing so has no medical benefits and is an unnecessary drain on testing resources. Resources for PCR testing in Region Uppsala are under great strain.

Read the decision of the Vice-Chancellor on advice for reducing the spread of infection.