University announces surveillance testing, incident report form in update to faculty, staff

On Tuesday, University provost Marie Lynn Miranda and executive vice president Shannon Cullinan wrote to Notre Dame faculty and staff in an email to provide updates on the COVID response units (CRU), surveillance testing and incident reporting.

The email reported that the CRU is now fully operational. The daily health check is now providing guidance to students who are experiencing any of the “big three” COVID symptoms — fever above 100.4 degrees, shortness of breath or loss of sense of taste or smell — to contact University Health Services. Students who test positive will be isolated and contact tracing will find individuals who need to be quarantined.

“To date, the contact tracing team has been able to connect with close contacts quickly,” the email said.

As a follow-up to the pre-matriculation testing all students received before returning, the email said that over the next three to four weeks, groups of students and smaller groups of faculty and staff will be randomly tested due to the known pattern of asymptomatic individuals. According to the email, the University will assess this testing and local rates of COVID-19 to determine if broader testing is necessary.

“Depending on the outcome of these rounds of testing, and the status of case rates in St. Joseph County and other key indicators, we may test all students once again as well as a concentration of faculty/staff regularly coming to campus,” the email said.

Testing results will be posted on the “HERE” dashboard, which is officially live as of Tuesday, the email said.

In addition, the email announced the creation of a COVID incident report form that is available for all staff, faculty and students to use to ensure that the entire community is following health and safety protocols.

“Each of us is likely to witness violations of health and safety protocols on campus. And each of us has a duty to politely address these issues and support one another. Students are looking to each of us to set an example of resilience and leadership—and we know you will provide it,” the email said.