Lots of info for you today
First up today, congratulations to our LA area Wake Foresters and hats off to families in Tampa as well for a terrific World Series (Mr. Daily Deac is a lifelong Dodgers fan and I would be remiss in not mentioning that!). Also in athletic news, if you didn’t see the wonderful NBC news story about our football player Nick Andersen, a walk-on standout, it is a real heartwarmer. Watch it here.
Lots of COVID-related info today, so apologies in advance for a longish message.
There is good news for our students in quarantine, and that is that our outdoor program is starting back up today (caveat: weather permitting). Want to make sure families understand some of the important distinctions about the program:
Students will have the ability to sign up for outdoor time on weekdays and weekends, weather permitting. They are being emailed the agreement to participate, which lays out the rules for this process, and once they turn that in, they have the opportunity to sign up for a slot.
There is strict medical guidance on how the program must be run in order to preserve the safety of our students, volunteer staff, and hotel staff. As such, there are limits to the number that can go out each day at each hotel.
In addition, students who are COVID positive and are in isolation cannot participate, as it poses a risk to others to have positive patients circulating in the hotel and among staff. We are sorry about that. It is public health guidance we must adhere to.
We are working to add more spaces so more quarantine students can go out each day, but right now in our Orange status, we ask for your patience and understanding that we must be extra cautious about medical protocol and ease in gently.
Students cannot have friends from campus come see them during outside time. That potentially puts those friends at risk, and we need to use our space just for quarantine students (in terms of social distance considerations).
We have had a number of questions about quarantine/isolation and medical care, so here’s what I’ve got for you:
Students who are in isolation (i.e., they are COVID positive) are getting a phone call daily from WFU staff to check in and see how they are doing, do they have symptoms and are they escalating or improving, etc.
All students are required to complete the SneezeSafe process daily, and for students in quarantine or isolation, they should automatically get a STOP each day because they are in quarantine or isolation (that is one of the questions SneezeSafe asks). The Student Health Service monitors all those STOPs each day, and they can look at an individual student’s symptoms over time. Say for example a student reported yesterday that they had congestion, and today on SneezeSafe they say they are now short of breath and have confusion, SHS sees that and proactively reaches out to them to talk in more detail and coordinate care. So please be assured that students in isolation are being monitored.
Because of medical privacy, Wake is not allowed to share a list of names of students in quarantine or isolation (just as your employer can’t tell your coworkers if you are in quarantine, etc.) So there is not a way for us to be able to proactively reach out to all students at the hotels and still comply with medical privacy. That is why we have developed the opt-in Wellbeing Coaching. Students in quarantine can tell us that they want contact, and when they do, we initiate that process. Please remind your students that this wellbeing outreach exists and that they can tap into it at any time (it doesn’t have to be on Day 1 at the hotel, etc.). In fact, there is a slide show they receive after arrival that lays out a lot of these resources; view it here.
Students who are in quarantine (i.e., have had contact with a COVID positive patient) are typically tested for COVID themselves 4-7 days after exposure. If a student is at the hotel, we come to the hotel to test them. If they live off campus, we encourage them to seek a test.
The Student Health Service has on-call nurse support after hours for sick students only. So if your student tries to call SHS after hours and they have a routine administrative question that is not a time-sensitive illness-related issue (e.g., wanting to know their release date from quarantine, when they will be tested, etc.), the nurse on-call service will not be able to assist them. After hours, students with non-urgent, administrative type questions can email shs@wfu.edu or contact the office the next day.
In terms of being released from the hotel, that happens like this: for students in Isolation (they are COVID positive), Student Health Service has a phone call with students to verify that no additional isolation or testing is indicated then they will notify the hotel staff that it is appropriate for the student to be released from isolation. Your release is not immediate, as there is a discharge process that may take a little while. You should remain in place until you hear from the hotel staff; the front desk will phone you to let you know it is time to pack up, turn your keys in, etc. The hotel can drive you back to campus if needed. We try to get all students released by 11 am. We cannot guarantee a release at a specific time. For students in quarantine, they will get an email in their Student Health Portal when it is time to be released. Students in quarantine can go down to the hotel desk to check out once released.
While students are given information about quarantine and isolation, sometimes it is overwhelming to process that when they first arrive at the hotel. Remind your Deacs there is great info on the Student Health website and the Residence Life and Housing website adds links to lots of the resources and how-tos. There is also a website with resources for off-campus students.
There are also a couple hotel items to mention:
Students and families have asked about windows opening at the hotels. Residence Life and Housing had emailed this to students to clarify: “Some of you have inquired about opening your windows. The windows are locked for safety and security measures established by hotel management. Locked windows are not intended to be a means of emergency egress. Directions for fire alarm activation response were provided as part of your notification to relocate to quarantine and isolation housing.” The hotels passed all safety inspections by the City of Winston-Salem prior to us contracting to use them as a quarantine space. You should also know that if something is a fire door, it would have a fire exit sign indicating it as such.
There are reports of students not following quarantine or isolation protocol in the hotel. If your student is there, please remind them that they have to adhere to the guidelines (such as staying in their room and not trying to go visit other people). Your students would not want to have to extend their stay at the hotel because they had new contact with a student in quarantine who later tests positive for COVID, or have any student conduct consequences.
I am cautiously optimistic as I look at the dashboard, because our increase in cases doesn’t seem as steep as last week. We need to continue our diligent work of being very cautious right now and hope that trend continues. Thanks to all our students for their hard work.
We are extending our Call Center hours into the weekend again just in case you and your Deacs have questions. We are at 336-758-7500 Mon-Friday 10 am-3 pm Eastern, and this weekend we will be open Saturday and Sunday 10 am-2 pm.