Updated by Director of Student Health, Approved by CIRT
WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., March 14, 2022 – Please find below updated contact tracing guidelines as approved by the West Liberty University Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) and following CDC and Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department best practices.
Definition of terms
- Quarantine – separation from exposed people
- Isolation – separation from infected ipeople, even without symptoms
- Close contact in higher education – within 6 feet of someone for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more in a 24 hour period, regardless of masking practices.
Students/faculty/staff should report if they are diagnosed with COVID-19 or if they were named close contact of a positive case of COVID-19 using the positive report form linked here.
If you test positive for COVID-19 (isolate)
Everyone, regardless of their vaccination status:
- Stay home for 5 days. If you are a student residing on campus and cannot return home to self-isolate, WLU will attempt to provide you with self-isolation space based on availability.
- Complete the positive report form, indicating that you have tested positive.
- Inform your close contacts of the possible exposure (contacts see info below)
- Inform your professors that you cannot attend classes in person.
- If you tested off-campus, upload a copy of your positive test result showing your name and test date to the Student Health Portal. Home tests will not be accepted at this time.
- If you have symptoms and your symptoms are gone or greatly resolved after 5 days, you can leave isolation. If you have a fever, you should continue to self-isolate until your fever goes away. Raised
- Health Services will endeavor to contact you before your isolation ends and send you a written release of isolation.
- You will be advised to continue wearing a mask around others for another 5 days.
- Athletes must be seen by Athletic Training before resuming sport participation.
If you have been exposed to someone with Covid-19 (quarantine)
I. If you:
- have been boosted Where
- Completed primary series of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine in the last 5 months Where
- Completed primary series of J&J vaccine in the last 2 months
Then you should:
- Wear a mask around others for 10 days
- Test on Day 5. If you are a student, you can contact Student Health Services to schedule a free COVID test at 304-336-8049, Monday through Friday from 7 p.m. to 3 p.m. or you can test at an off-campus location and upload results to the Student Health Portal. Employees should request a test at one of the local testing sites, such as Doctors Urgent Care or Roxby Labs.
- If you:
- Completed Pfizer or Moderna primary vaccine series more than 5 months ago and is not boosted Where
- Completed the first streak of J&J over 2 months ago and is not boosted Where
- Are not vaccinated
Then you should:
Stay home for 5 days. After that, continue wearing a mask around others for another 5 days.
- Fill in the positive report form, specifying that you are a direct contact
- Inform your teachers that you cannot attend classes in person
- Test on Day 5. You can contact Student Health Services to schedule a free COVID test at 304-336-8049, Monday through Friday 7-3 p.m. or you can test at an off-campus location and upload the results to the student health portal. . Employees should request a test at one of the local testing sites, such as Doctors Urgent Care or Roxby Labs.
If you develop symptoms, get tested and stay home
NOTE: Family Contacts are people who share a living space with someone diagnosed with COVID-19. This includes bedrooms, bathrooms, living rooms, kitchens, etc. This also includes roommates in on-campus residence halls, apartments and houses, and roommates in on-campus halls of residence. Family contacts Homework quarantine if exposed to the case.
- If the contact can not separated from the case inside the home, the contact should be quarantined for the case’s (minimum) 5-day isolation period plus an additional 5 days. The contact will then have to wear a mask for an additional 5 days.
The separation requirements are as follows:
- The case should never be in the same room as household members.
- The case cannot share plates, cups, dishes or phones with household members.
- The case should have its own bathroom. Not possible? Housekeeping should do daily cleaning.
If household contacts develop symptoms of COVID-19, they should get tested.
*The protocol is subject to change
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