Dear Student,
We look forward to welcoming you to campus this fall. While the COVID vaccines, boosters, and treatments have been tremendously effective in preventing widespread severe illness, Tufts continues to implement a series of measures designed to limit transmission of the virus within our community.
Here is what you need to know before coming to the Medford campus this fall:
Testing
- We strongly recommend that you and anyone helping you move to campus take a COVID test at least 24 hours before leaving home. You can take either an antigen or PCR test. If you test positive, please postpone your trip to Tufts and follow isolation guidelines.
- Free PCR tests will be available for students, if you are on campus and experience COVID-like symptoms. We are not conducting surveillance testing.
Masking
- The use of masks on campus is optional but wearing a mask indoors is highly recommended as an effective strategy to prevent the transmission of illness. Additional information on the use of masks can be found on the CDC’s website.
- Free masks will be available on campus.
Vaccination
- All students must be fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID and have provided documentation via our secure Patient Portal.
- Alternatively, you must have applied for and received approval from Tufts for medical or religious accommodation. Visit the Tufts COVID-19 Vaccine Information website if you need to learn more about the accommodation process.
Isolation
- As has always been the case, the University may require you to isolate or quarantine should you contract or be exposed to an infectious disease that is subject to an isolation or quarantine requirement per the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. This includes COVID-19, monkeypox and mumps, among others.
- If you test positive for COVID, you will isolate for at least 5 full days in your own room, whether you live on or off campus. You will need to take precautions with your roommates or others with whom you share living space, including wearing masks when you are in the same room.
- Students living in campus housing who are at high risk for COVID––for example, those who are immunocompromised or have been approved for a medical exemption to the vaccine––may be housed in temporary housing until their COVID positive roommate completes their isolation and tests negative. Please contact Student Health Services if you are at risk, living in campus housing, and your roommate has tested positive. We are unable to accommodate housing off-campus students, even in the case of underlying conditions.
- Students living on campus who test positive for any illness requiring isolation and who can return to their permanent home address without getting on a plane, train, bus, or other form of public transit are encouraged to do so to complete their isolation at home.
- Students are responsible for letting their faculty know when they are in isolation (faculty will not be directly notified). Faculty have been asked to be as flexible as possible in helping you keep up with your coursework while you are isolating.
- Isolating students with meal plans will order brunch and dinner daily via the Dining2You app on their phones and will collect their food at the mezzanine area of Dewick.
Contact tracing
- The University and local public health authorities are not conducting contact tracing for COVID-19 this fall.
- If you have been exposed to COVID-19, you should take a test 5 days after your last close contact with the case and seek medical advice at any time should you become symptomatic.
Please enjoy the rest of your summer and we will see you soon.
With all best wishes,
Marie Caggiano, MD, MPH
Medical Director, Health Service
