News 2020: Update on symptom and testing protocols
Update on symptom and testing protocols

Introducing our testing website and dashboard

Dear UMass Dartmouth Community,

I write to you today to share important information regarding new health and safety measures UMass Dartmouth is taking to protect our on-campus community during the fall semester.

First, the daily COVID symptom checker can now be completed online through the Health Services patient portal for all students, faculty, and staff. Use your UMassD username and password to log into the portal. For more information on the patient portal and the checker, please view the Symptom Checker guide. Please note, some areas of campus (fitness center, labs, etc.) will ask you to display your completed daily checker results before being admitted. The symptom checker will indicate your status for 24 hours and be updated the next time you complete the screening.

Remember that if you screen positive, it is important to stay in your room or home. Health Services will contact you directly with further instructions.

Second, as you may know, the University has contracted with the Broad Institute to provide asymptomatic COVID testing for students, faculty, and staff. All residential students, commuter students with any face-to-face classroom or lab, clinicals or internships, Law students requiring access to the Law Library, and students working on campus are required to be tested weekly. Faculty and staff who teach face-to-face classes, frequently interact with students or perform student-facing jobs are encouraged to test weekly. As with the symptom checker, access to certain areas will require a recent negative test result.

The testing center is in Woodland Commons and is open Monday to Friday from 8 am to 4:50 pm. Residential students cannot be tested on Fridays. Appointments for testing can be made online through the Health Services patient portal. For more information on how to schedule an appointment for COVID testing online, please view the COVID-19 Testing Schedule guide.

The test administered on campus is the molecular SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test. Results will be available to students, faculty, and staff through the CareEvolve system within 24-48 hours. You will be asked to set up an account in CareEvolve to access your test results. Notification of negative results will be sent from the Broad Institute to the tested individual via email. Anyone who tests positive or has an invalid test will be contacted by a healthcare provider from UMass Dartmouth Health Services. If you have had a positive COVID test in the last 90 days, you cannot be retested.

It is important to note that our testing center is only for individuals without symptoms. Individuals with symptoms of COVID should send a secure message through the Health Services patient portal or call 508-999-8982 to discuss testing options.

While asymptomatic testing is an important part of our health and safety strategy, we all must continue the proven infection prevention practices:

  • Wear a face covering
  • Physical distance of 6 feet from one another
  • Wash your hands
  • Frequent cleaning and disinfecting of high touch surfaces

For additional information on testing, please visit our COVID-19 Testing website or email covidtesting.support@umassd.edu. Also available on our testing site is a dashboard containing our testing data that will be updated weekly. I want to thank Professor Dana Fine, Associate Professor Hua Fang, Associate Professor Yi Liu, and Assistant Professor Donghui Yan for collecting, analyzing, and displaying this data.

Working together, we can continue to protect the health and safety of our campus community.

Sincerely,

 

 

Marianne Sullivan, DNP, ANP-BC

Director of Health Services