Pilots Prevent
September 14, 2021
Now that nearly all UP students, staff, and faculty are vaccinated against COVID-19, exposure to the virus does’t always mean your daily routine comes to a screeching halt anymore. In fact, if you’re vaccinated, get exposed and don’t test positive, life pretty much goes along as usual.
But that does’t mean you still don’t have questions. You might be wondering how to know if you’ve been exposed, and what, exactly, you’re supposed to do next?
Let’s start at the beginning. When it comes to contact tracing, quarantine, and isolation, UP is following CDC and Oregon Health Authority guidelines, protocols being implemented by fellow institutions of higher education, and epidemiological advice. When a community member tests positive for COVID-19, UP will implement a contact tracing process. For students, the COVID Case Management Team handles this. The team works with students who test positive to identify close contacts. Close contact is defined as spending 15 minutes or longer within six feet of another person. If it is determined that an individual was in close contact with a COVID-positive person in classrooms, residence halls, or offices, that individual is notified.
Fully vaccinated students, faculty, and staff who are identified by a member of the contact tracing team as a close contact of a COVID-19 positive case may continue attending classes, teaching, and working in offices. They do not need to quarantine if they are not experiencing symptoms. Instead, they must closely monitor their health for COVID-19 symptoms, be vigilant about wearing a mask around others both indoors and outdoors until receiving a negative test result, and get tested for COVID 3-5 days after exposure. “As you can see, if the exposed individual is vaccinated then they don’t have to change their everyday routine all that much. We are lucky that our UP community is largely vaccinated...it has really helped to streamline things and keep life fairly normal,” says Andrew Weingarten, director of Residence Life and member of the COVID Case Management Team.
Unvaccinated students, faculty, and staff who are identified by a member of the contact tracing team as a close contact of a COVID-19 positive case will still be required to quarantine in their residence hall room or in their off-campus residences until 10 days from exposure. They cannot attend in-person classes or events. They must closely monitor their health for COVID-19 symptoms, be vigilant about wearing a mask around others in their room or house, and will need to be tested 7 days after exposure.
The University’s protocols for all of this can be found here: https://www.up.edu/pilotsprevent/policies/contact-tracing.html
Regardless of vaccination status, if you test positive for COVID, you’ll need to go into isolation for 10 days from the date of the onset of symptoms or a positive test result. That means not leaving except to seek medical care. Students living on campus are assigned a case manager and a special room to stay in during their isolation/recovery. The case manager checks in regularly and helps connect students to any health, academic, or spiritual support they need. Residence Life and the COVID Case Management Team know that nobody wants to be sick and in isolation, so they’ve tried to make sure the rooms are filled with homey touches and creature comforts, including brand-new mini fridges and microwaves. “People who test positive for COVID can isolate together, so students in isolation are paired together as roommates when possible because it is nice to have company,” says Weingarten.
So far, there have been very few positive cases of COVID, and most have been people who live off campus. “We’re guiding our off-campus students through the isolation process at home,” says Weingarten. “We still provide a case manager and lots of great support.” If off-campus students can’t isolate (maybe they share a bedroom or there’s only one bathroom in the house), the University will provide an isolation room if space is available.
“If there's something we can do, we’ll do it,” says Weingarten. “One time last spring we delivered salt and pepper to a student in isolation who needed it. We have also delivered a student some personal items that they had forgotten back in their room. Earlier this semester, one of our COVID Case Management Team members assisted a student by arranging medical transportation between campus and an off-campus medical visit. More recently, our colleagues in Mailing Services helped us get a student’s important mail and packages delivered to their isolation room.”
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