IU Announces Phased Reopening, Testing Partnership with IU Health
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana University President Michael McRobbie has released recommendations for reopening the university that include on-campus, in person instruction for the fall semester “in some proportion,” with risk mitigation measures, testing and tracking. McRobbie also announced an extensive partnership agreement with IU Health to screen and test any member of the IU community—students, faculty and staff—who is symptomatic for COVID-19.
Recommendations of the school’s Restart Committee have been sent to all IU campuses and McRobbie has asked for responses by May 26.
McRobbie says the central recommendation of the committee’s Restart Report supports a blended or hybrid model of instruction. He says, however, that plans for each campus could change depending on the the latest news of the pandemic.
“As we move forward into the summer and the fall semester, we must be constantly aware that the sheer unpredictability of the pandemic and the response to it from numerous quarters means that we may need, at any moment, to pause our plans or even reverse them. All our planning needs to incorporate these possibilities,” said McRobbie.
IU and IU Health have partnered on the screening effort, which will begin June 1, will begin with a web-based IU Health COVID-19 Symptom Checker, which will determine if a person needs further screening. A virtual screening will follow with a medical professional, who will decide whether the person needs a coronavirus test, at which point they will be referred to a testing site at one of 15 locations throughout the state.
“Should a person receive a positive COVID-19 test, they will be directed to self-isolate for an appropriate period,” said McRobbie. “Contact tracing will be required using the procedures established by the Indiana State Department of Health. During the contact-tracing process, persons potentially exposed will be provided additional resources and information.”
You can learn more about IU’s plan by clicking here.