What happens after a Penn State student, faculty or staff member tests positive for COVID-19?
Penn State revealed Thursday its plans for quarantining or isolating students, faculty and staff who test positive for the new coronavirus, contact tracing, and how the university will publicly report the information.
The university’s multipronged approach to mitigating the potential spread of COVID-19 in Happy Valley starts with contact tracing, which health experts have said is a key strategy to containing the spread of infectious diseases like COVID-19.
Penn State plans to have up to 36 people who work to identify, notify and monitor anyone who came in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 while they were infectious, Vice President for Student Affairs Damon Sims said Thursday during a virtual town hall.
Contact tracers are expected to operate from a hub at University Park and serve all of the university’s campuses throughout the Keystone State.
“Students need to know that they’re going to receive — if they’re in this situation of either quarantine or isolation — quite extensive support,” Sims said.
The university plans to help students monitor their symptoms, conduct physical health checks, offer support to those with mental health concerns and assist with academic issues.
Employees who may have been in close contact with someone who either was diagnosed or is believed to have COVID-19 should expect to be contacted by the university and be told to quarantine.
Quarantine or isolation?
Students living on campus who are diagnosed with COVID-19 or are suspected to have the disease and are awaiting test results are expected to be quarantined at three Eastview Terrace residence halls.
The three dorms offer about 400 single-person rooms, each with its own private bathroom. Space is limited, and Sims acknowledged students living off campus may have to find their own arrangements.
That’s an area of concern for graduate student Bailey Campbell.
Students may be hundreds of miles from their family or someone who is able to help with daily tasks, like buying groceries from stores that are expected to see a surge in customers.
“Penn State has been pushing for a very long time this idea of personal responsibility, and that is hugely problematic because ... that must come with a subsequent courageous policy decision on the part of administrators,” Campbell said. “They have to provide the environment in which it is difficult for COVID-19 to spread. It is my feeling that the university policies do not make it difficult to spread; they make it easier than it should be.”
Faculty and staff who test positive are required to report that information to their supervisor and isolate off campus.
How will the information be reported?
Penn State plans to publicly share information about the the number of tests conducted and results on a campus-by-campus basis with a dashboard on the university’s website.
The data will not reveal individual or specific location data that could compromise patient privacy, but is expected to share general disease prevalence indicators, including isolation and local hospital capacities.
The information is expected to be more detailed than what is provided by the university’s athletics department, President Eric Barron said. The athletic department releases COVID-19 testing results every two weeks, but does not identify which team reported the positive test or how many recovered.
This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 3:49 PM.