Illness or Exposure Protocols
If you don’t feel well, stay home and notify your supervisor or department chair. Take an at-home COVID antigen test or contact your primary care physician first and follow their advice.
Note to supervisors and department chairs: Staff and faculty are not required to divulge that the reason for their absence is due to a COVID-19 isolation or quarantine. However, if they choose to share this with you, treat this as confidential information.
Instructors who choose to shift to remote-only instruction should: 1. send an email to their chair indicating their plan for instruction for the coming week and 2. inform students of this planned shift. Faculty should indicate to students how they plan to support students who need to be in isolation. We understand that some students are hesitant to report a positive test for fear of falling behind in classes. All faculty have been instructed to work with students to ensure their ability to keep up with coursework if they need to quarantine or isolate.
Faculty or staff should not request information about students’ vaccination status. If a student volunteers such information, faculty must not ask about the reasons why a student is or is not vaccinated. The university will not share confidential health information.
No. Once the isolation period has been completed and an individual is cleared to return to work or school, evidence of a negative test is not required.
If you are experiencing COVID-like symptoms, whether you are unvaccinated or vaccinated--follow the established protocols, including contacting your medical provider to be tested, staying home and away from others to mitigate the risk of spreading the virus, and following any isolation protocols should you test positive for COVID.
CDC guidelines regarding isolation and quarantine are available here. Students should follow the instructions provided by the Health and Wellness Center.
View our current campus status page.
If an instructor becomes symptomatic or receives a positive COVID test result, the instructor should shift the class to remote instruction until the instructor receives a confirmed negative test result or, in the case of a positive test, is cleared to return to work. If the instructor is too sick to teach, the class can be rescheduled or an alternative instructor can be found.
Visit the Vaccination Resources page on the Coronavirus Information Center for more information about Lehigh's policies.
The CDC offers more guidance on boosters, including eligibility, on the CDC website and Vaccines.gov provides location information for COVID vaccines and boosters.
At-home antigen tests are widely available at pharmacies, and, in some cases, are covered by insurance. If you are vaccinated, LVHN offers COVID testing for those without symptoms and for those experiencing symptoms. You can obtain a test at many local health centers and pharmacies as well. See the Pennsylvania Department of Health site or Lehigh’s HWC site for lists of local testing resources. For insurance purposes, it may be important to obtain a test in your county of residence or via your primary healthcare provider.
No. While an individual always has the option of sharing their vaccination status personally, the university will not share someone's vaccination status or personal information.
