Protocols for Reporting Confirmed Cases of COVID-19 Explained

In an email to the campus community earlier this week, Jeff Hescock, executive director of environmental health and safety and emergency management, described the university’s protocol for reporting confirmed cases of coronavirus.

That email is as follows:

To the Campus Community,

Following the recent announcement of the first on-campus positive test for the coronavirus, we are providing information to the university community regarding the protocols for reporting confirmed cases of COVID-19 . We’ve received inquiries about how and when such an announcement is made, and explaining this decision is valuable in providing transparency about UMass Amherst’s response to the pandemic.

The university has encouraged reporting of suspected cases to our COVID-19 Response Team, which has received information from many sources and provided guidance and support to members of our community. Under state law, personal privacy is protected and local health departments have jurisdiction in all public health matters, including emergencies, and it is in local communities where most of our faculty, students and staff are now studying or working remotely. As a result, we have very limited testing information about our community as a whole. There may be many positive tests that we don’t know about.

When an individual tests positive, it is typically a local health department that assesses the case and initiates “contact tracing” to determine who the individual may have come into close contact with. While overall data is reported by the state, information on individual exposures is only shared with the university by cities or towns when contact tracing leads directly to the campus and our small number of on-site employees or students. 

UMass has taken a number of actions to monitor and protect the safety of our on-site community. If a current on-site member of our community is identified as possibly being exposed, and then tests positive, we proceed with notifications of individuals, groups, and the community. The recent case of the UMass Dining employee was our first known COVID-19 case on campus that resulted from exposure to staff in direct contact with an infected individual; this is why we notified our community with an all-campus email.

We remind everyone to remain vigilant and practice good hygiene, maintain social distancing, wash your hands regularly, monitor your health and stay home if you are sick.  

The university is committed to maintaining a safe campus environment for our students, faculty and staff.  If you need the assistance of our COVID-19 team please send an email to Covid19HR@umass.edu or call 413-687-2283.

Thank you.

Jeff Hescock
Executive Director of Environmental Health and Safety and Emergency Management