COVID-19 & Open Sky
Open Sky’s dojo manager is a practice- and research-focused Public Health Epidemiologist (PhD). Open Sky will follow the evidence-base from science and all national, state, and local guidelines, but may be more strict in applying those guidelines to our particular indoor, close contact, gym-like setting. We will be watching both “Community Level” (largely a measure of hospital overwhelm and severe COVID-19 cases) and “Community Transmission” (measures of new cases and % positive tests).
Dojo Updates
Update 2/1/2024: As of February 2024, Open Sky is relaxing the COVID-19 vaccination requirement for membership. As strains have gotten less virulent and contagious and vaccinations more effective, COVID-19 is now largely globally endemic. Should these dynamics change – for COVID-19 or other severe infectious diseases – we may again follow strict healthcare and school setting guidelines in order to protect our membership. As always, Open Sky will continue to do its best to follow evidence-based scientific rationale in our choices about the health and safety of our membership.
Update 7/18/2022: We are currently in the middle of a spike of summer variants for COVID-19. As at-home-testing is much more common now, official lab-confirmed case counts are expected to underestimate true incidence by around 7 to 10 times. Community levels are elevated as well. While recent variants are still somewhat less severe than Delta, they are spreading fast. Open Sky will be maintaining the COVID-19 vaccination and booster requirement for the time being. Given the high reproductive number / transmissibility of these prevalent variants, and the masks (in an active, physically contacting environment) likely provide less protection than before. We recommend, but don’t yet require again, mask wearing for dojo members. We request visitors wear a mask or share current vaccination cards.
Update 3/29/2022: ED visits for COVID-19-like-illness (CLI) are at an all-time low, comparable to pre-pandemic levels. The CDC has authorized a second booster for those most at risk. Nearly all measures of COVID transmission have been decreasing all month. Orange County’s Community Level is Low, along with nearly 100% of the state. However, there are still active COVID-19 clusters in Orange County, including congregate living facilities and three elementary/middle schools. Though it’s hard to tell perfectly given discrepancies and lag between CDC data and state data, Orange County is on the border of Moderate-Substantial Community Transmission at around 50-60 cases / 100,000 this past week and and under 4% positive. Recent studies clarify that immune protection among unvaccinated people after COVID-19 acquisition against current Omicron variants is increasingly weak, and that vaccine without booster does not provide the same protection as people who have been vaccinated and have been infected (hybrid immunity) or in vaccinated people who have received a booster dose.
Because of this, Open Sky will be (1) maintaining the COVID-19 vaccination and booster requirement for the time being and (2) relaxing our mask requirement to be optional for the month of April starting Friday April 1 (no joke). We encourage members who wish to continue wearing masks to do so if they wish, or to wear them selectively (e.g. on for partner practice, off otherwise). I ask that members who haven’t sent me their updated booster pictures to please send them now. As weather increasingly permits this Spring and Summer we’ll continue to bring fresh air and strong ventilation into the dojo.
Update 3/01/2022: Now that case counts have dropped sharply, we are re-opening indoor classes Tuesday March 1. As Orange County is not yet in a low risk state, we will continue to require masks for indoor practice for the time being (as the case counts continue to drop), but look forward to relaxing that requirement when community transmission is low, to revisit in monthly this Spring. Note that this mask requirement, for us, will therefore last longer than Orange County requirements. COVID-19 vaccination is still required for practice according to the recommended CDC vaccine schedule. Boosters may soon be required to meet “full vaccination status” in keeping with local university policies. New members can join by sharing a photo of their vaccination card when signing up. The dojo is currently 100% COVID-19 vaccinated.
Update 12/21/2021: Due to the December Holiday, increasing surge in cases, and reduced availability of testing, Open Sky will pause formal classes in late December and early January. Class will be canceled from starting Friday December 24 and tentatively restart on Tuesday January 11.
Update 8/16/2021: Because of increases in community transmission (due largely to the combination of a more contagious delta variant and remaining large numbers of unvaccinated people), CDC has once again recommended mask wearing indoors. Orange County, NC has made mask wearing indoors required as of August 11. Our dojo will follow suit, requiring masks for all members and visitors. There are extra masks at the dojo should you forget yours.
History: Previously, because of COVID-19, Open Sky suspended in-person indoor general membership classes and was operating on a reduced schedule until June 2021. Once our membership was 90%+ vaccinated (pre-delta), we initially maintained separate vaccination-required and mixed-vaccination classes. As of September 1 2021 we moved to requiring vaccination of all current and new members. See the December 2020 dojo statement on COVID-19, including general practice guidelines and epidemiology questions and answers (known at that time), by the dojo manager.
Current CDC Community Level
(North Carolina –> Orange County. Note that CDC data feeding this tool typically lags NC DHHS data by a few days.)
For other COVID-19 data, also see: