COVID Update

Message Highlights

• For all community members, missing your routine testing during the last two weeks of March will require you to follow “reentry” protocols outlined below.
• You can now opt for nasal or saliva testing for most required testing.
• We are screening for COVID-19 variants and asking for additional precautions by those suspected of being positive with a variant.
• Our SPIT lab’s research and performance is showing excellent results.
• Please remember to complete the “Spring Break Travel Survey” on the homepage of your PioneerWeb.

Dear DU community,

As previously shared, if you have been on campus over winter quarter/spring semester, to maintain campus access over spring break, you must continue to adhere to DU’s current testing protocols and schedules.

If you miss any of the required testing during the last two weeks of March, your campus-access will be suspended, and you will need to complete the “reentry” protocol: a negative COVID-19 test and a seven-day quarantine, logged in the daily quarantine log within PioneerWeb. If you plan to be away from home for one or more nights, you must complete the reentry protocol.

Please remember to complete the “Spring Break Travel Survey” on the homepage of your PioneerWeb. Residential students may complete their quarantine on campus, in their room, with the ability to order and pick-up meals at the Community Commons.

In addition, faculty, staff and students joining campus for the first time in the spring quarter will need to receive a negative RT-PCR COVID-19 test and will be required to quarantine for seven days before arriving on campus for spring quarter (logged in the daily quarantine log within PioneerWeb).

To support those returning to campus, particularly those with access issues or reentry questions, we will staff the help center in the garden room of the Chambers Center (1901 East Asbury Avenue) from Sunday March 28 through Friday April 2, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

To accommodate continued testing, return testing and new arrival testing, we are temporarily extending the testing pod’s hours from March 15 through April 9.

Temporarily Expanded Testing Pod Hours
Mon-Sun
8 a.m.–noon | 1–4 p.m.

Nasal testing no longer required.
Effective immediately, nasal testing is not required. All testing requirements can be met by either saliva or nasal swab RT-PCRs. Both nasal and saliva samples can be provided at the pod. SPIT lab locations are available seven days a week. Please note that if your saliva test is positive, a retest via nasal swab will still be required.

Excellent performance from our SPIT lab.
We continue to conduct research through our SPIT lab and saliva testing. To use this testing method, you will need to provide consent for that research. The SPIT lab has processed over 26,000 tests since January 4 with excellent test performance and unanimously strong external evaluation by Children’s Hospital of Colorado, National Jewish Health and the University of Illinois research team. This effort is supported by 10 faculty and staff and over 80 student volunteers and represents a point of pride for DU.

We are screening for COVID-19 variants.
Currently, there are some confirmed cases of COVID-19 variants in Denver and one suspected case of the B.1.1.7 variant on our campus. We are screening for the variants in all positive results. Positive nasal swabs will be tested for several known variants via a variant panel developed by National Jewish Health.

At this time, following city requirements, should any DU personnel provide a sample that is suspected as a variant, they will be asked to quarantine alone in their own home or room, with their own bathroom and access to food preparation or delivery. If the person is a residential student, they will be placed in University quarantine housing (not isolation housing) to avoid contact with other positive individuals not suspected of having the variant. Close contacts of people with samples that are possible variants are not eligible for shortened quarantine and must quarantine for the full 14 days.

We look forward to many returning and new faces on campus this spring and hope that increasing vaccine access, including on our own campus, will bring us one important step closer to a return to our normal way of life.

Thank you, as always, for all you are doing to help keep our community healthy and thriving.

Sincerely,

Sarah Watamura
COVID-19 Coordinator