COVID Testing over winter break

Email highlights

• Remember to pause your testing if you will not access campus during winter break
• Currently scheduled testing dates may shift; testing locations/hours will be reduced during breaks but will still be available
• Limited testing of DU friends and family is available by appointment only
• We wish you all a successful end of term and a restorative winter break

Dear DU Staff, Students and Faculty,

COVID-19 conditions on campus continue to be quite well managed, thanks to your commitment to routine testing and vaccinations. As we approach the winter break, we wanted to briefly review protocols for testing during interterm.

If you will not access campus during break, please pause your testing. You can easily complete this by logging into PioneerWeb, choosing “campus access status” on the top left, and click on the link labeled “To suspend your campus access and COVID-19 testing, please click here.” By answering a brief set of questions, you will pause your required testing and associated reminder emails.

When you are ready to return, simply resume testing by following the same steps in PioneerWeb. Under current campus access protocols, you do not need a negative test result in advance of returning to campus. Access to campus and campus facilities is usually restored 1-2 hours after you complete a test. Please plan accordingly, leaving yourself plenty of time to complete a test and for that test to process before you require access to a DU facility. Your access to campus is usually restored 1-2 hours after you take a test at DU. As when we returned for fall term, we will not accept external tests during winter quarter/spring semester return (first 2 tests of the calendar year).

If you will have an in-person presence on campus or an in-person internship, clinic, field placement, or service-learning experience over winter break, you must continue with mandatory testing on the specified schedule to maintain your Cleared for Campus/Clinical/Field Placement access. 

A few things to note:

• As we prepare for the holiday season, your testing schedule may change. Please check your next test date by logging into PioneerWeb and choosing “campus access status.” There will be no test dates scheduled between November 23 and 28. If your regular testing date falls within this time period, your testing schedule will be updated accordingly, and you will need to be tested prior to November 23rd or after November 28th. You will receive a reminder email when your test date is approaching and again on your required test date.
• To “shift” your test date, simply test earlier than is required.
• Please review the latest testing hours and locations here before you go. Note that there will be limited testing hours over the break and that auxiliary locations (Nelson, Dimond) may not always be available. All testing locations will close at 1 p.m. the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (Nov. 24) and will be closed on Thursday, November 25 and Friday, November 26. Only the pod will be open from 9am-1pm on Saturday, November 27 and Sunday, November 28. Beginning Monday, November 29, most testing will return to normal hours: Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; however, please check the link above to ensure your preferred location is open. We will have reduced hours again the weeks of December 20th and December 27th.
• Due to increased demand for testing in the Denver area, specifically over the weekend when it can be difficult to access a PCR test, we have been working to provide limited testing to friends and family of the DU community. Our lab is now CAP-accredited and CLIA-certified for high complexity testing. This limited testing for DU friends and family will be by appointment only and charged at our cost ($30/test) beginning the week of November 22. Although DU students, faculty and staff do not need an appointment for testing, friends and family will need to make an appointment to avoid any compromise in our ability to efficiently process. The first step is for them to create an account at myhealth.du.edu.

We will provide more specific guidance on testing for the winter quarter and spring semester return in December. In the meantime, we wish you all a successful end of term and a restorative winter break.

For questions, please reach out to us at COVIDCoordinator@du.edu, for emergency needs at 303-871-2683, for non-emergency questions at 303-656-7137, and for SPIT lab questions at 303-549-8867.

Sarah Watamura
COVID Coordinator on behalf of the COVID-Response Team