Anna: Thank you so much for speaking with me today. There was a testing event at the Coliseum today [Friday, Sept. 11], how did that go?
Concodora: I did not have the opportunity to go while it was occurring but the feedback I heard said that it was [efficient]…somebody from Winthrop said that it was…very organized…amazingly quick and efficient. That is a ringing endorsement for going through a popup event. Amazingly quick and efficient was what she said. I just spoke with someone from DHEC that said their initial report was that they had 50 people come through in the first hour but they didn’t have any initial information beyond that. That sounds promising.
A: Students who were tested at this event, will Winthrop have access to those results or are they just for [the individual]?
C: DHEC will contact the student directly depending on how they chose to receive their results. You can get them electronically or by mail, so I would assume that most students would choose the electronic option. Then if they test positive, then the epidemiologist from DHEC would contact the student and through that case investigation would learn if they are a Winthrop student and if they were on campus at the time while they were infectious. DHEC is authorized to share that information with Health and Wellness Services, and then Health Services keeps that in our electronic record.
A: Is that how the COVID dashboard will be updated or will those numbers be mostly self reported?
C: It will be a combination. There’s that week time frame that is reflected on there for new positive cases. It will be a combination of students self reporting to Health Services and we also will be asking for the lab result with that if we were not the ones who tested them. It will also take into account tests that Health Services performs on students that come back positive. It will also be lab results that DHEC shares with Health Services. The dashboard is only going to reflect students who are positive who were on campus while they were infectious. So it’s a snapshot of what’s going on on campus, not for all Winthrop students who may be taking classes remotely but living back at home.
A: Are COVID tests available at Crawford?
C: Absolutely. That information has been emailed out to students and it’s available through our website, through the Health Services website. Health Services is offering diagnostic tests, so that it’s still the same nasal swab but we are only testing students if they are experiencing any symptoms consistent with COVID-19 and if they have been notified that they are in close contact to a positive case. In those two circumstances, Health Services will test students. The student just goes into the patient portal, you can find that link very easily on the Health Services website. They can request the appointment through the patient portal to be tested. If they have a vehicle, then…they will just drive up to the emergency spot and we will come out and do the test through your car. Otherwise, if they’re on foot, we have a testing location behind the building. If you see how it’s been roped off, we have a tent that we can set up behind there for privacy. For students who test on campus, it is a $15 charge that gets applied to their student account. As with any charge that a student incurs from Health Services, it’s only listed as Health Services on their student account. It never ever says the reason why they come in.
A: Now students that do test positive for COVID have been asked to go home if they live in South Carolina, why is that? Wofford has been designated as the quarantine building.
C: Wofford has limited space and has been designated for isolation and quarantine. Because of the limitation, we don’t have the ability to just keep everybody on campus. That’s why we’re asking for students who have the ability to return home to do so. Residential students were requested to complete, I think the title of the survey was called ‘Return to Campus’, that Residence Life sent out for students to proactively complete to document what their quarantine and isolation options are. That way, that gives us an idea of what the need is for students to remain on campus. I have not seen the results of that [survey] yet to know what that looks like.
A: I know Winthrop’s plan is modelled after [CDC] recommendations for returning to campus. That plan doesn’t include having all students tested before they come on campus. Why is that?
C: So the CDC guidelines did not recommend testing everybody prior to the return to campus. There’s a number of reasons for that. Number one, at that time, testing availability was still very limited and so that would have built in an inequity for students that live all across the state that would have varying access to a testing resource. Actually, especially because we learned this by trying to guide our students, there was not a consistent location or a consistent way of accessing an appointment. There may have been a delay and the availability to even get an appointment for testing, and then after that point of testing, a delay in the timeframe for when you would receive your results. So for that reason, as well as testing is only valid for that point in time. You can be tested and those results are sent off to a lab and then you leave that testing location and you go to the grocery store or you go to a restaurant and you’re exposed and that completely nullifies that test result. Whereas testing is extremely important because it informs that individual whether they are truly infected with the virus, it gives a false sense of security. Somebody could be tested and have that negative test result but not realize that they have been exposed by going to the store and could still bring the virus to campus that way. So from a resource perspective as well as an access perspective, and the fact that testing is only as good as the moment in which you take it. If you don’t immediately go into isolation until you receive that test result, then it really doesn’t have that much meaning to it.
A: If a student does test positive, they are allowed to come out of isolation after ten days?
C: There are three different criteria. You can find all of this information on the Health Services website. It’s been at least ten days and it’s been at least 24 hours since they’ve had a fever without taking any fever reducing medication and the third piece is as long as their symptoms are improving. The cough takes a while, a couple of weeks or a few weeks depending on the individual, to go away, but as long as they’re on that process for improving and it has been at least ten days and…it’s been longer than 24 hours since they’ve had a fever without any medication.
A: So they are not required to take a second test?
C: No.
A: How long will testing events be taking place at the Coliseum?
C: That is according to DHEC’s availability. They are confirmed through September, every Friday and Saturday. They are working on the October schedule right now with the goal of continuing on Fridays and Saturdays at the Coliseum.
A: There is the COVID Dashboard and there is also the symptom tracker. Can you explain the difference between those two and what their purposes are?
C: That’s a good question. The daily COVID symptom tracker is located in Medicat, Health Services’ Patient Portal, you can find that link on our website. The purpose for that is for residential students and students who are commuting to campus to attend in-person classes. So if you’re on purpose for any reason, we want students to log in before they leave their residence, first thing they do that day, complete the daily symptom tracker. That asks the usual questions about symptoms, how are you feeling, have you been notified that you’ve been in close contact and so forth. Depending on how a student answers those questions, they will receive kind of a color response on their screen and instructions. If they answered ‘no’ to everything, their screen will be green and it will say ‘please complete again tomorrow.’ If they answer ‘yes, I’m having this kind of a symptom’ then the color will change and give instructions ‘please remain at your residence and wait for contact from a nurse from Health Services.’ Any response other than green populates on our…’to-do list’ so to speak, within our electronic health record for the nurses to monitor to see if there is a student who needs to be contacted. Then the nurse will call the student directly because the symptom tracker asks for a current cell phone number or the best number to reach the student. The dashboard on Winthrop’s website is a count of that seven day time frame for the week before of confirmed positive cases for students or for employees, the students again are those who were on campus while they were infectious.
A: Is there any particular reason the dashboard updates every Tuesday instead of every day?
C: The information changes so rapidly that we wanted to have the best way to capture the most accurate information and it’s also a resource issue for how time consuming it is to keep track of all of that every day. Winthrop has chosen to go with a once-a-week update. We really want our residential students and our students who are coming to campus for any reason to do the daily symptom tracker. That’s through the patient portal and the link is available on the Health Services’ website. We want them to answer honestly, too, because the whole point behind that is for everybody to be aware on a daily basis of how they’re feeling and then seek consultation to know if they are potentially sick or especially if they’ve been informed that they’ve been in close contact. This is a really valuable tool that our electronic health system has provided to us as a further tool to help keep our campus protected, to mitigate that risk of spread. The second piece that I think is really, really important to emphasize is that we need students to contact us and to be willing to honestly report how they’re feeling or if they’ve been notified as a close contact and if we do call a student, or try to make contact with a student because we need to notify them that they were identified through contact tracing to have been exposed, we really, really need students to answer that call or respond to that email, saying ‘yes I can call right now and talk with you.’ Or, if we’re giving the student positive test results because they have come in to get tested, we really need for them to be honest about who they’ve been around so that we can notify that person. It’s a matter of public health. We truly understand students’ hesitation to feel like they are ratting out their classmates or their friends, or that they’re going to have an impact on their ability to go to class or go to work. We truly understand that concern but we are relying on this self report and cooperation so that we can do whatever we can to try and protect campus. Without having that collaboration, that really hinders our ability, as well as DHEC’s ability to protect the community.
A: If someone does test positive and they have told you they have been in contact with A, B and C, Health Services will contact those people?
C: As long as A, B and C are students. If they identify people who are Winthrop employees, we give that information to human resources and human resources does that close contact notification. If their close contacts include non-Winthrop affiliated people, we’re sending all this information to DHEC because this is a reportable condition and we are obligated to report it to the state health department. DHEC, their epidemiology team, also are going to be contacting individuals who have tested positive and who have been identified as close contacts. But if Health Services has that information about a student, we’re going to contact them first because we want them to know as quickly as possible.
A: If someone in a class tests positive, will those classmates all be contacted?
C: It depends on where they were in proximity to the student. The definition of a close contact is within six feet for longer than 15 minutes. We’re going to ask that student, were you in class while you were infectious? If so, we need that class information. Who were the people that sat around you? Mind you, classrooms have been reconfigured to build in the social distancing of six feet, but if somebody chooses to move their chair or they were closer, we’re just asking for students to just give us accurate information so we can properly notify others who were impacted.
