With a majority of the URI community fully vaccinated and COVID positivity rates remaining low, health services continue to advocate for regular testing. PHOTO CREDIT: Elizabeth Wong
With a majority of University of Rhode Island’s students and staff receiving vaccinations for COVID-19, Health Services has reevaluated the procedures surrounding positive cases on campus.
URI announced in May that students would be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19 unless they could provide a religious or medical exemption.
“About 94 percent of URI’s population is vaccinated with only about 1,000 people having an exemption,” Health Services Vice President Ellen Reynolds said.
Additionally, at the beginning of the semester, URI announced that they would be requiring non-classified staff and faculty to get vaccinated by Oct. 15 at the latest.
For vaccinated members of campus, COVID-19 protocols have eased up. Vaccinated students no longer are required to get tested biweekly. However, Health Services still strongly encourages community members to get tested when they experience illness or COVID-19 related symptoms.
“Almost every symptom of COVID can show up in a cold,” The PR Director of the COVID-19 Task Force Dave Lavallee said, “If you have any kind of thing, sniffles, sore throat, headache, go get tested.”
Asymptomatic testing is located in the Memorial Union this fall as it was last semester. Community members who suffer symptoms of any kind are asked to get tested at the testing trailer across the street from Health Services. These tests will return results in about an hour according to Reynolds.
One prevalent change for vaccinated students is the procedure relating to quarantine after a COVID-19 exposure.
“Being vaccinated allows you to not have to go into quarantine,” Reynolds said. “If you’re unvaccinated and exposed, you need to be quarantined for seven days.”
URI protocols require students who are exposed to get tested immediately and again three-to-five days after exposure to see if a positive case has developed. Additionally, exposed students will be required to wear a mask at all times if around other students.
Close contact counts as being closer than six feet to someone who has tested positive within 24 hours since an encounter.
“Anybody who has a positive test will be isolated for 10 days based on the date of the asymptomatic test or 10 days from the onset of symptoms,” Reynolds said.
These protocols for positive cases are aligned with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s isolation guidelines and are applied to students, staff and faculty.
URI will provide isolation space for students who are not able to safely travel home to quarantine or are unable to successfully isolate themselves in their current living situation.
Faculty and staff are also required to follow the same policies as students when it comes to being exposed and/or testing positive for COVID-19.
Reynolds also highlighted the importance of wearing masks over both the mouth and nose when indoors in any building on campus.
“We know people are tired of it, but right now it is an additional and essential mitigation strategy against spreading the virus,” Reynolds said.
The COVID-19 tracker is still available on URI’s website which lists the number of tests administered by health services as well as the number of positive results. As of Sept. 27, the positivity rate is at 0.67 percent which is below Health Service’s goal to stay below a 1 percent positivity rate.