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COVID 19 Updates

Contact Tracing, Isolation or In-Room Recovery, and Quarantine

Contact Tracing

We ask that you identify and notify individuals with whom you have been in close contact during your infectious period and inform them they may have been exposed. Close contact means being within six feet, for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period, of someone with COVID-19 while they are contagious. You can be contagious two days before your symptoms begin and until you are recovered. For information about what to do if you are identified as a close contact of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, see Instructions for Those Exposed, Symptomatic or Who Have Tested Positive for COVID-19. 

Isolation or In-Room Recovery and Staying Home when Sick

Isolation, In-Room Recovery, or Recovery Off-Campus

Isolation is for people who, regardless of vaccination status, test positive for COVID-19 or are diagnosed with COVID-19 and need to be separated from others to avoid infecting them. Students should expect to recover in their rooms. This could include recovery with roommates who have not tested positive for COVID-19, with the assumption that, given the high transmissibility of COVID-19, these individuals already are close contacts who have been exposed. Students may also have the option of recovering at home or elsewhere off campus if it is safe to do so.

Healthcare including mental health support is available while students are recovering through Health Services and Counseling during business hours and 24/7 through TimelyCare. 

Meals will be provided at the dining halls by grab-and-go rather than delivery for those in isolation due to COVID-19. Students who feel well enough to do so should contact their faculty members to develop a plan for participating in coursework and other activities virtually, if those options are available. Students recovering from COVID-19 in their rooms are not permitted to have visitors.

During the recovery period, students remaining on campus (or other locations where housing is provided by the College, if applicable) must stay in their assigned room and may not leave except to use the bathroom or pick up a meal. They must wear well-fitted, high quality masks when leaving their rooms to pick up a meal or to use the bathroom. Students living off campus must follow the same protocols and isolate in their private residences. 

In accordance with CDC guidance, isolation, in-room recovery, or recovery at home or another off-campus location will normally last five full days, ending on Day 6 (Day 0 being the date they were tested for COVID-19 or when symptoms began). However, some individuals may require additional time for recovery. Students and employees must remain in isolation (or in-room recovery or recovery at home, as applicable) until they meet the following criteria:

  • Five days have passed (Day 6) since their COVID-19 symptoms first appeared (or since they took the test with a positive result), and:

    • Their symptoms have improved and they feel better (with the exception of altered taste or smell which can extend beyond Day 6).

    • They have had no fever for at least 24 hours without the use of medicine that reduces fevers.

Students and employees must also meet other criteria in order to return to campus. See Instructions for Students who Test positive for COVID-19 and Instructions for Employees who Test positive for COVID-19.

Staying Home when Sick

Staying home (or in a residence hall room) is required for individuals with COVID-19 symptoms who are waiting for their COVID-19 test results. For detailed information, see Instructions for Those Exposed, Symptomatic or Who Have Tested Positive for COVID-19.

Individuals living on campus must remain in their room and may not leave except to use the bathroom or pick up a meal from the dining hall. They must wear well-fitted, high-quality masks when leaving their rooms to pick up a meal or to use the bathroom.