April 8, 2020 UPDATE

To the community,

Dartmouth has been working with representatives from the state of New Hampshire, our regional Multi- Agency Coordinating Entity (known as MACE), and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in their search for possible alternative care sites to accommodate approximately 125 patients needing low-intensity care. Together we have identified West Gym as an appropriate facility for that purpose.

We write to let you know that this Friday, the New Hampshire Army National Guard will be on campus moving supplies and furniture into the gym. Using space at the gym would create more room at DHMC for critical care patients in the event of a surge in hospital patients due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone's hope is that our social distancing efforts are working and that this space won't be needed, but we are preparing it just in case.

We also want to remind each of you that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain. Recent studies have shown that a significant portion of individuals with coronavirus lack symptoms and even those who eventually develop symptoms can transmit the virus to others before showing symptoms. This means that the virus can spread between people interacting in close proximity, even if those people are not exhibiting symptoms.

A face covering does not protect the wearer but protects those with whom they may need to temporarily come into close contact. Dartmouth has a supply of non-medical masks and is distributing them to the employees on campus who are providing service and interacting with people. You can find more information about the use of cloth face coverings at: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/cloth-face-cover-faq.html.

And it is important to remember that face coverings do not replace the need for careful hygiene, social distancing, and avoiding groups of people. As always, we encourage you to visit Dartmouth's COVID-19 website at https://news.dartmouth.edu/covid-19/covid-19-coronavirus-information for the latest community updates and changes in policy. Please take care and stay well.

Sincerely,

Dr. Lisa Adams
Joshua Keniston
Co-Chairs, Dartmouth COVID-19 Task Force