I’m starting to hear multiple reports of positive Covid tests from people that attended the Championship last week. I believe we all knew this was possible/likely but it’s important that anyone that has symptoms gets tested and follows guidelines for quarantining and masking to avoid spreading Covid further.
Spectrum has had one mentor test positive so far.
Nothing on 1923/1914 yet, will update as best we can. Testing today (waiting on results) through our school district, and will test again throughout the week.
Got my normal weekly test this morning and did all my classes virtually today; I’ll let people know if I test positive, and lay low in the meantime. I should know tonight or tomorrow morning. No symptoms right now, and fit tested N95 the entire event so fingers crossed.
Yeah. We went through it after Michigan Champs. We will finally get to meet in person after all the quarantining on Wednesday.
Would have been a real mess if we went to Houston.
Unfortunately I tested positive on Saturday, started getting symptoms Friday Night.
I was a strategy mentor with 1114 in Houston so I highly recommend anyone who interacted with me on Carver to take a test! Also anyone who was at Biggio’s Wednesday night and True Anomaly Thursday Night.
If it helps anyone - I’m fully vaxxed + boosted
Thanks for letting us know. Contact tracing is going to be an absolute nightmare from an event like this, but posting the places you ate and drank at really helps narrow down the highest risk encounters.
Fortunately, even as someone who sat near you on Thursday, my first antigen test came back negative a couple hours ago.
I heard of a good number of teams who had positive cases within their team, or had multiple close contact reports within their team right before leaving for champs without further testing. It’s a tough call to make, but still sad to see, I recommend people get tested.
I got an exposure notification from MI covid alert for the first time, I’ve had the app since it came out around when the pandemic first started. Exposure date was 4 days ago which places me in Houston (doesn’t give a time unfortunately so I can’t give a date/time). Symptom free but I just took a rapid test to verify and waiting on the results right now. Still gonna keep up with regular masking at school and I am fully vaxxed and boosted.
Edit: tested negative but still gonna wear kn95s at school as always
I was wondering how long before this thread would start.
I already know of a couple positive cases from mentors who were at the Thursday and/or Saturday mentor gatherings. Though to be honest, nobody should be surprised by that…
It really isn’t. If you’re sick, stay home.
Curious for people who tested positive while in Houston. Are you still there? Did you go home, or have to extend your hotel reservation? I’m not really sure what that process looks like tbh. I’m assuming you’d either stay in Houston until negative or drive home if you drove there, but I’d still like to hear stories of how that works logistically.
If you’re vaxxed and not positive, but a close contact a few days before travel (and are testing negative up to the trip) then it is a hard call. Do you stay home just because you were a close contact and not sick? There is still a risk if the exposure was a day or two before the trip
I think this was something that wasn’t talked about much beforehand or to be honest even during, but was in the back of everybody’s head. Covid is still a thing and the numbers post tournament will be very interesting in the least.
At the end of the day, the question someone in that situation needs to ask themselves is: “How much risk is worth spreading a disease to children”?
I don’t have the answer, but I do believe that a majority of circumstances should have a clear answer.
I was supposed to have jury duty after I got home but was not allowed due to their policy of having close proximity of someone who tested positive previously. One of my volunteers had COVID the week before the event so according to their requirements I can’t come in even though she had recovered from the virus.
For the record, here is the current guidance from the US CDC:
On when to test:
Quarantine and Isolation:
Free mask availability (N95 respirators, the good stuff):
Same here. We had 5 members that tested positive. We stopped meeting after our first Monday. Today was our first day back.
(ignorant question from a non-attendee)
Did FIRST provide instructions for officially reporting cases? Obviously full contract tracing is next to impossible at this scale, but HQ has a comprehensive list of of attendees and could make an effort to communicate these and future cases.
I’m sure there are many cases that won’t be shared here and many people that may have been exposed that won’t see it here. Not to mention some folks may wish to share positive cases anonymously. Would be great if they could have a webpage of times/locations people were who were positive, especially around meals.
Actually though…
acknowledging as I write this that there was probably someone positive in almost every location at every time, so the safest thing for everyone to do is to treat themselves as it they had close contact and take appropriate precautions. As Bilfred linked above, you don’t have to fully isolate yourself in this case, but there are sensible precautions you can take.
I will add the current strain of COVID is aiming at those with cancer and the elderly. As one who went to champs with cancer, I so far have tested negative. I just want to put it out there on what doctors have told me.
Adding onto it though, just because the current strain is aiming at certain groups doesn’t mean the young shouldn’t be taken out of the picture. I was assigned to queuing for Galileo and there were plenty of times, even on my breaks walking through the pits, where I saw no masks. This sadly included my own team I mentor. I had to remind people of safety glasses and masks. It kinda got insane. I once had a team member talk to me (not going to name who or team number) and their mask wasn’t fully on so I ended up being spat on in the conversation. Made me more susceptible and having to remind the team member of safety in general. I know situations like that happened more than once, probably a plethora of times.
I stopped at the UL (Underwritten Laboratories) table near the pits and they said they aren’t taking a step in the pits for they know it is horrendous. I felt bad for their whole experience was sitting at a table.
Were there times when we need to eat or drink around one another? Absolutely, that is inevitable. But we could at least be responsible of having a mask on when those times are not present.
I, myself, have had faults at times of feeling the need to take my mask off. I could’ve been a little more cautious. We all have faults. I will not ignore that. I like to make the point of if you are not actively eating or drinking, please wear your mask. This includes at your own robotics facility/shop.
As Billfred stated, please utilize the resources given. Get vaccinated. And most of all, stay safe. It would be sad to hear of a student be positive and get super sick. If you are unsure, just ask! I or any volunteer/adult for that matter will not be offended at all.
Stay safe y’all, we are a strong community and let’s keep it strong! 
My husband got a similar alert. He’s negative atm, but we are testing all family members tonight.