COVID-19 Continues to Pop Up as New Testing Comes to Campus

Now that Union has had its first several cases of confirmed COVID-19 on campus, it’s natural to wonder how the process of quarantine and isolation work. If an individual has COVID-19, they will be isolated. Then, Union’s trained contact tracers will talk with the confirmed positive individual and determine who may have fit the CDC’s definition of a direct contact. 

According to Union’s interpretation, this is someone who has a combination of all three of the following: no mask and within six feet of each other for a duration of more than 15 min. A combination of one or two of these does not constitute a direct contact, all three must be included. Union's contact tracers, currently Tammy Adams, Carol Gibson, Kim Canine and Frankie Rose, will call the students who were in direct contact with the confirmed case and those students will have to quarantine.

Union’s isolation is for confirmed cases, and requires the student to move into one of 20 isolation rooms with their own bathroom (exception would be village students who can isolate themselves, or dorm students who can safely isolate at home) and have no contact with anyone. Quarantine is for students who have been in direct contact with a confirmed positive case, or are waiting for results of a COVID-19 test. In the girl’s dorm, these students can stay in their rooms and their roommate must quarantine as well. They have a designated bathroom stall at the far end of the restroom that only they can use, as well as a designated shower stall.

Once a student is quarantined as a direct contact, they cannot leave their rooms except to use the bathroom. Meals are ordered via the quarantine meal order form on uGroups and they are delivered to their doors. Laundry service is provided as needed. The person must quarantine for 14 days. If at any point during that time they begin to show symptoms, they will be tested and if positive, isolated. If no symptoms develop, they are released after the 14 days. 

This is the first of a two part series; stay tuned for next week’s installment. Special thanks to Dean Emily for providing much of the information for this article. Picture is of Union’s onsite testing center, more on that next week.

Jade Covel is a Senior

Religion Major from

Topeka, Kansas