Harvard University Health Services Director Giang T. Nguyen said in a Friday interview he anticipates that state vaccine shipments will remain low through March but is âhopefulâ that supplies will increase in April, in time to send students home for the summer vaccinated.
Since December, when HUHS began vaccinations, Harvard has submitted weekly requests to the state asking for thousands of doses, according to Nguyen. Due to insufficient supply and a focus on larger-scale facilities, he explained, HUHS has only received 100 or 200 doses at a time.
Nguyen said he expects this trend will continue until the end of the month, though he hopes supplies will increase in April.
Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Claudine Gay said in a Monday interview that she remains cautiously optimistic that Harvard will return to normal, in-person operations in fall 2021.
While Gay acknowledged the possibility of returning the full student body to campus in the coming fall, she also said fall planning efforts must remain in tune with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and vaccine distribution efforts.
âI remain hopeful that fall will bring a return to our normal campus operations,â she said. âBut Iâm also realistic that a lot of things would need to break our way for that to happen, and there are no guarantees.â
The Harvard Graduate Council mulled student government priorities and institutional challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic in its first public meeting of the semester Wednesday evening.
The Council which represents all twelve of the University’s graduate and professional schools communicates graduate student needs with Harvard administrators including University President Lawrence S. Bacow and Provost Alan M. Garber ’76. Wednesday’s meeting marked the start of biweekly public meetings, held over Zoom during the pandemic.
The meeting opened with remarks by Harvard University Health Services Director Giang T. Nguyen, who said there will “probably be stages” to the potential reopening of campus come fall. Despite a recent decline in Covid-19 cases across the country, the risk of infection remains due to the emergence of new variants, Nguyen added.
Harvard University Health Services Director Giang T. Nguyen said during a faculty meeting Tuesday that the University has nearly completed vaccinating all Harvard affiliates eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine in Phase One of Massachusettsâ distribution plan.
Harvard is prepared to begin Phase Two vaccinations â which include individuals ages 75 and older, per state guidelines â once the University receives more shipments of the vaccine from the state, Nguyen said.
âThere is some level of communication with the state, but we have not been able to get as much detail from them as we would like,â Nguyen said. âBut I know that in recent communication with them, they could not give as much vaccines as they would like to give.â
Harvard is gearing up to expand coronavirus testing and potentially obtain Covid-19 vaccine doses for its affiliates ahead of the spring semester, Harvard University Health Services Director Giang T. Nguyen said in an interview Monday.
Nguyen said health measures implemented during the fall semester were âvery successfulâ in containing the spread of the virus on campus because Harvard affiliates adhered to safety guidelines and participated in frequent testing.
âOur community was very responsive to understanding that the risk was there,â he said. âBy testing frequently, we were able to identify folks who were infected and then advise them to take themselves out of circulation.â