Safety Protocols for Everyone - Coronavirus Update

Updated September 23, 2020

Find answers to common questions about reporting COVID-19 symptoms, testing, health monitoring, social distancing, and wearing face masks.

Reporting COVID-19 symptoms or exposure

What is “exposure” to COVID-19?

According to the Monroe County Health Department, exposure to COVID-19 occurs when an unprotected person (not wearing a face mask or face covering) who does not have COVID-19 is exposed to someone known to have COVID-19 (who is also not wearing a face mask or face covering) for more than 15 minutes and within a distance of six feet or less.

Understanding how exposure to COVID-19 happens helps us understand why it is so important to follow three key health principles: masking/face coverings, physical distancing (staying more than six feet apart), and hand hygiene.

What should I do if I think I, or someone I’ve had contact with, has COVID-19?

Testing and health monitoring

Who has to take the daily Dr. Chat Bot daily health screening and how do employees do that?

Added 9/11
All University faculty, staff, and students must complete the Dr. Chat Bot daily health screening if they will be on University campuses, including the University Medical Center, or at any University owned or leased facility. The screening is also available through the UR Mobile app.

Medical Center faculty and staff: Click here to complete your daily health screening. For help with Dr. Chat Bot please call (585) 275-3200 or email helpdesk_isd@urmc.rochester.edu.
Non–Medical Center faculty and staff: Click here to complete your daily health screening. For help with Dr. Chat Bot please call (585) 275-2000 or email univithelp@rochester.edu
Students attending classes on campus for Fall 2020 must complete the Dr. Chat Bot screening every day. Daily reminders are sent by email.

Where should University employees go for COVID-19 testing?

Added 9/11
For faculty and staff, only those who have COVID-19 symptoms are being tested, unless faculty and essential staff have returned from a state on the New York State list of “restricted states” or international location. All faculty, postdoctoral appointees, trainees, or staff members should call their primary care provider (PCP) if they are symptomatic. If an employee does not have a PCP, they can call (888) 928-0011 for guidance.

What if an employee tests positive for COVID-19?

Added 9/11
All non–Medical Center employees should contact University Health Service at (585) 275-2662 about a positive test. Medical Center employees should contact Employee Health at (585) 275- 6065. A phone interview will follow all reports to determine with whom an employee was in contact in order for health officials to proceed with contact tracing.

Faculty, staff, and postdocs who test positive for COVID-19 must self-isolate at home. Employees must get clearance from University Health Service or Employee Health before returning to work if they received a positive COVID-19 test result; they are waiting for a COVID-19 test result; they were told by their PCP that they may have COVID-19 based on their symptoms, even if not tested; or they share a residence with an individual who has been told by their PCP that they have or may have COVID-19 either by testing or symptoms alone.

Under quarantine and isolation, employees are covered under the COVID addendum to Policy 324: Reassignment/Absence to Prevent Contagion. If they remain out of work with COVID-19 longer than 14 days, they will be covered under Sick Leave and Short-Term Disability and Family Medical Leave or Worker’s Compensation if they were exposed while working.

Why are faculty, staff, and students who reside off campus not scheduled to be tested more frequently and intensively than those students and staff residing on campus?

Testing priority is being given to students in areas that medical experts and facilities leaders have identified as being higher risk for transmission, including residential housing. The University will conduct stringent symptom monitoring and surveillance by requiring all students, faculty, and staff on campus for the fall semester to complete a daily COVID-19 symptom screening process, i.e., Dr. Chat Bot. Additionally, the University plans to test 300 randomly selected students each week. The purpose is to help identify an outbreak about a week sooner than we would by only relying on the Dr. Chat Bot symptom survey. This is being done out of an abundance of caution.

Which students will be selected for random testing?

The University plans to test 300 randomly selected students each week. Testing priority is being given to students in areas that medical experts and facilities leaders have identified as being higher risk for transmission, including residential housing. The purpose of this program is to help identify an outbreak of COVID-19 about a week sooner than we would by only relying on the Dr. Chat Bot symptom survey. This is being done out of an abundance of caution.

What forms of COVID-19 testing is the University implementing?

We will use the Medical Center’s Clinical Microbiology testing lab to conduct standard COVID-RT-PCR viral tests—a nasal swab test. Testing is required for every undergraduate student living on campus upon their arrival (costs are paid by the University). Priority will be given to students living on-campus in double rooms. All graduate students residing in University Housing will have access to a test, but it is not required for move-in. The same is true for all incoming undergraduates and graduate students living in off-campus housing.

The University will also conduct stringent symptom monitoring and surveillance by requiring all students, faculty, and staff on campus for the fall semester to complete a daily COVID-19 symptom screening process, i.e., Dr. Chat Bot.

Additionally, the University plans to randomly select 300 students per week, and ask them to come in for testing. The purpose is to help identify an outbreak about a week sooner than we would by only relying on the Dr. Chat Bot symptom survey. This is being done out of an abundance of caution.

What about other testing methods?

While many different kinds of tests have been discussed in professional and lay literature, University and Medical Center health care leaders emphasized the need to scientifically verify all testing protocols before they can be implemented with any degree of confidence. As of this summer, the COVID-RT-PCR viral test is the scientific standard recognized by national and international regulatory agencies. Other methods of testing are being explored, but because of the risk of generating an unknown level of false positives, they’re not being used to screen for COVID-19 as of this summer.

How will these strategies be effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19?

In addition to testing, one of the key strategies in reducing potential infection rates is to identify the possibility of infection as soon as possible. Dr. Chat Bot enables the University to track people with COVID-19 symptoms, while helping individuals take the necessary measures if they are showing symptoms, regardless of whether they eventually test positive for COVID-19.

The University will conduct viral testing of symptomatic individuals. If an individual tests positive, the University will manage contact tracing to locate individuals who may have come in contact with the infected individual. The University has reserved quarantine (possible exposure) and isolation (confirmed positive test) space housing on campus.

I’m a student. What happens if someone I know tests positive for COVID-19?

Face masks and safety guidelines

What is the correct way to wear a face mask?

Added 9/11
Face masks are only effective for protection if they are handled, worn, stored and disposed of properly. The University’s Newscenter article includes the following information provided by medical experts.

Face Mask Dos and Don’ts

Do practice proper hand hygiene. Before and after handling the mask (to put on, adjust, or take off), either wash your hands or use hand sanitizer to reduce cross-contamination risk.
Do mark the outside of the mask in some way so you can easily identify which side is the outside of the mask, and handle it accordingly. Some individuals mark the outside with their initials in permanent ink.
Do keep a paper bag handy for storing the mask every time you take it off; an open plastic Ziploc-style baggie is an alternative if a paper bag is not available. Always store a mask in a clean place. Never store it in a purse or pocket.
Don’t touch the outside of your mask while it is on your face.
Don’t pull your mask below your chin while you are wearing it. Leaving the mask dangling or improperly fitted to your face creates opportunities for cross-contamination.

Helping kids wear masks:

The Medical Center has created a Toolkit for helping children wear masks during the pandemic. In addition, University of Rochester pediatrician Elizabeth Murray shares ways to help young students to be safe and wear a mask at school in this Facebook video.

Where should I wear a face mask/face covering?

Updated 9/23
Students, faculty, and staff should wear a face mask or face covering everywhere they can—inside and outside—to protect themselves and others around them from infection.

Indoors, face masks/face coverings must be worn any time there is more than one person in a given space—including times of brief interaction. Exceptions to wearing a face mask/face covering include eating or drinking, working alone in an office, or (for students) being in their residence hall room alone or with their living unit/“family unit.”

On-campus living units have maximums of:

one person in a single room;
two people in a double room;
one, two, three, or four people in an apartment; or
four or six people in a suite.

All students in a shared house must wear a mask at all times except when in their own room or in a bathroom.

Outdoors, face masks or coverings must be worn when six feet of separation is not feasible, and students must carry a face mask/face covering with them at all times in case others approach to within six feet of them.

If everyone is properly wearing a mask, individuals can be together around an outdoor table or outside in a group and be closer than 6 feet together. But everyone in the group has to be masked—if one person is not, the 6 feet of separation is required.

Are all of these types of face coverings (masks, gaiters, bandanas, etc.) acceptable for students, faculty, and staff to wear on campus?

Will staff be given one of the University cloth face masks, as well as students and faculty?

How does one clean the University’s cloth face mask and how often should masks be cleaned?

Added 9/11
The cloth face masks distributed by the University to non–Medical Center students, faculty and staff should be washed weekly at a minimum, and immediately if they get wet or visibly dirty. They can be hand-washed or tossed in the washing machine and dryer at high temperatures (recommended). If your University-provided face mask becomes wet or dirty while at work, please see your manager for a replacement mask.

Face mask cleaning protocols for Medical Center employees are available on the URMC Redesigned Portal (NetID and password required), including guidelines on how, where, and when to wear a mask. In a related 3-minute video, associate hospital epidemiologist Brenda Tesini answers questions about the Medical Center’s masking guidelines.

What other tactics will the University employ to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on campus?

How effective are these protocols?

Since universal masking went into effect at the end of March, the University knows of no case in which COVID-19 was transmitted from a patient to a caregiver or from an on-campus member of the University community to another on-campus person.

Infections have occurred in employees outside of campus, which suggests hospital and campus workers have been able to prevent infection using appropriate masking and other forms of personal protective equipment (PPE), hand hygiene, and social distancing.

What should I do if I see a person, or group of people, not acting responsibly with regard to COVID-19 safety measures?

In general, students should first report their concerns to deans, RAs, or their advisors; staff should report to supervisors; and faculty should report to chairs or deans. However, you can also use the COVID-19 Concern Report to file a concern.

Examples of what to report may include concerns about gatherings, lack of mask wearing or social distancing, or any other issue that presents a risk to individual or communal health.

Has the Governor’s office approved the University’s plan for reopening?

Where can I go for the latest information on COVID-19-related issues?

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