MUNCIE, Ind. — Part of Ball State University's return-to-campus plan will rely heavily on self-certification from both staff and students to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus on and off campus.
Ball State announced more on its coronavirus screening procedures Monday.
Employees who return to work on campus will be required to complete a self-certification form prior to returning.
The form asks certain screening questions about health, including if the employee has had a recent fever or other COVID-19 symptoms or has been notified of exposure to COVID-19 within the last 14 days.
Students residing on campus will be required to either:
- Present a self-certification attesting to a 14 day self-quarantine (with daily symptom checking) prior to returning to campus, or
- Present a negative COVID-19 test result obtained within seven days before arriving on campus.
Students not living on campus also are encouraged to either self-quarantine before returning to campus or obtain a negative test result.
The document says that employees and students must monitor symptoms every day before reporting to campus for work or school; the use of temperature checks may be considered as an additional screening tool for specific programs.
Temperature checks would be limited as a screening tool in the university's own plan, however, because "initial research indicates that individuals can be infectious prior to developing a fever."
As far as actual testing for the virus, officials with the university said that there is an agreement with IU Health and Ball State's student health center for screening and testing for COVID-19 in currently enrolled students.
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►COVID-19: Ball State mandates face masks, joining IU, Purdue
Recommendations from the university still said that employees should seek medical care from their primary care providers.
According to the university plan, large testing of groups within the campus community would be considered only if several employees or students in a particular group or location become ill, and even then, it would be in consultation with state and local public health experts.
Employees, students and visitors who are instructed to quarantine after exposure to someone who might be positive, or to isolate if they have a positive test, must provide clearance from a health care provider in order to return to campus.
Ball State University President Geoffrey Mearns said the university will have rooms available for students to quarantine or isolate in residence halls if they get the virus.
►NATIONAL: Colleges are increasingly going online for fall 2020 semester as COVID-19 cases rise
Will it be enough?
Researchers from the Yale School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital published a study on Friday in the Journal of the American Medical Association Open Network about controlling the virus on college campuses.
The study found that the spread can be controlled at universities if students are tested for the coronavirus every two days.
Computer simulations show how the virus might spread among a hypothetical cohort of 5,000 students.
In the study, 4,990 students were assumed to be coronavirus-free, while 10 were assumed to be infected. Sscreening every two days using a rapid, inexpensive test would “maintain a controllable number of COVID-19 infections,” especially when coupled with other preventative measures, the study found.
The study estimated screening costs would be $470 per student per semester.
Researchers pointed out that monitoring students for symptoms was not sufficient, but also acknowledged the logistical challenges may be beyond the reach of many universities.
Corey Ohlenkamp is the city/county government reporter. Contact him via email at cohlenkamp@muncie.gannett.com or by phone at 765-213-5874. Follow him on Twitter at @Ohlenkamp.
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