Responding to Confirmed COVID Cases

All members of the St. Thomas community who are working, living, learning or otherwise spending time on campus are required to notify the Center for Well-Being if they are diagnosed with COVID-19 by submitting the student self-report form or faculty/staff self-report form, which are available on OneStThomas.

Faculty and staff should also notify their supervisor/department chair of their inability to come to campus using normal call-in procedures for the department.

Students who are tested at the Center for Well-Being and who consent to the sharing of their positive test results are not required to complete the self-report form.

St. Thomas will work with MDH, which will conduct contact tracing. In addition, St. Thomas will monitor for potential outbreaks.

St. Thomas will treat information as confidential and will share information only as needed to ensure compliance with public health guidelines, directives and this plan. Names of impacted individuals will never be shared in public communications.

All community members are expected to help maintain the privacy and anonymity of individuals who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or are quarantining due to COVID-19 exposure. Individuals who are able to identify the individual based on the circumstances are expected to be discreet. For example, it is OK to share you are quarantining due to a direct contact with an individual with COVID-19, but do not share the individual’s name. We want to be respectful and supportive of all community members through this crisis.

The confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis will be reported to local and/or state health authorities by the health care provider that conducted the test, including the Center for Well-Being if it conducted the test. St. Thomas may also share the information provided by students and employees directly with MDH. St. Thomas will work closely with state and local health officials on any recommended measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19. St. Thomas community members who have been in direct contact with a person with a confirmed diagnosis may be contacted by both St. Thomas and state or local health officials as part of contact tracing efforts.

MDH will perform contact tracing with respect to off-campus close contacts. This means that if a neighbor of a student has been in contact with an infected student for a period of more than 15 minutes closer than 6 ft, they will be notified of this contact through the Minnesota Department of Health’s investigation and given guidance about isolating. The University is not allowed to share personal health data about any student.

In accordance with the Clery Act, St. Thomas will inform the community if there is a confirmed outbreak of COVID-19 on campus that could pose an immediate threat to the health or safety of the campus community. The determination of whether cases are linked and constitute an outbreak will be made in accordance with Clery Act and public health guidance. The University publishes a dashboard with weekly information regarding on-campus cases in order to keep the community updated.