Dear Tulane Students,
We hope you had a restful and joyous holiday season, and we look forward to your arrival on campus later this month. We wanted to re-iterate some important information about pre-arrival protocols that you’ll need to follow before you arrive.
Pre-Arrival COVID-19 Testing (all students)
To protect the health and safety of the Tulane community, we are asking all students to know their COVID-19 status before traveling to New Orleans and/or arriving on campus.
All undergraduate, graduate and professional students should take a COVID-19 test and report their results in the Campus Health Patient Portal no earlier than 48 hours prior to their arrival on campus. Results from PCR tests and rapid antigen tests will be accepted.
Any student testing positive for COVID-19 should not come to campus. Instead, they should report their positive test via the COVID-19 Reporting Form. A Tulane Contact Tracer will be in touch and will provide guidance on how long to isolate and when it is safe to come to campus.
If you had a recent case of COVID-19 that you reported to Tulane, please reference your email instructions from Tulane Contact Tracing staff to determine how long you are exempted from testing.
How to submit documentation of your pre-arrival COVID-19 test:
- Log into the Patient Portal with your Tulane credentials.
- Click on the COVID-19 tab.
- Under Enter External COVID-19 Result, enter the date of pre-arrival COVID-19 test result.
- Enter the result value (Negative or Positive) and click Submit.
- The lab result line will appear. Click on Select File to upload a copy of the test result documentation (for rapid home tests, a photograph of the test result is fine).
- Click Submit.
On-Campus Availability of Symptomatic, Close Contact and Travel Testing
With the pre-arrival testing protocols described above, we hope to minimize the spread of COVID-19 on campus as the new semester begins. However, if you do experience COVID-19 symptoms shortly after your return, COVID-19 testing will be available on campus. Here are the locations and times for symptomatic, close contact and travel testing for students:
Uptown Student Health Center
Located on the corner of Willow St. and Newcomb Place
Come to the front of the building and check in with the nurse at the second door of the Health Center.
Hours of Testing: Monday through Friday – 9 a.m. to noon; 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Walk ups are welcome. No appointment is needed.
Downtown Tulane Living Well Clinic
Located in the “Old Book Store” in the Hutchinson Building, 1430 Ave.
Enter from the LaSalle Street entrance.
Hours of Testing: Monday through Friday – 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.
By appointment only. Please email TLWocchealth@tulane.edu to schedule an appointment.
Maintaining Immunization Compliance With COVID-19 Boosters and Other Vaccines
Before traveling to campus, we urge you to gather important medical records and catch up on any outstanding vaccine requirements. Whether you’re missing a classic vaccine such as the MMR, or you simply have not taken the time to get your latest COVID-19 booster, we ask you to pause and clear up these outstanding requirements before the spring semester begins.
How to Check Your Compliance Status
- Log in to the Patient Portal.
- Click the Immunization tab.
- Scroll down and look beneath the instruction box at the top of the page. In red letters, you will see either the words Compliant, Verified or Not Compliant.
- If you see Compliant, Verified, this means you are in compliance and need to take no further steps. If you see Not Compliant, this means you are not in compliance, and you must take further steps.
Not Compliant - How to See Missing Requirements
- Log in to the Patient Portal.
- Click the Immunization tab.
- Click View your immunization history.
- Under the Missing Immunization bar, you will see a list of missing requirements and the reasons for non-compliance.
- To print this list, click the green Print button.
Registration Holds Due to Non-Compliance
If you are taking in-person classes on any of Tulane’s campuses, and you fail to meet the university’s immunization requirements, a registration hold will be placed on your student account, which will prevent you from adding or dropping classes. You must complete the missing requirement before the hold can be cleared.
Types of Holds
When you have a registration hold, each time you log in to the Tulane University Class Schedule, an alert will appear, displaying the type of your hold. There are two types of holds placed by Campus Health:
- Hlth Immunizations Reg Hold (also known as an HI hold)
- Hlth Immun Supp Reg Hold (also known as an HT hold)
HI Holds are for the classic immunization requirements that have been in place since before the pandemic. These include the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR vaccine), the tetanus vaccine (Tdap preferred), the meningococcal vaccine, and tuberculosis screening or testing. For more information on these requirements, visit the Immunization Compliance for New Students page.
HT Holds are the newest type of vaccine hold, added to cover the COVID-19 vaccine. To meet the requirements needed to clear an HT Hold, a student must have their primary COVID-19 vaccine series plus one booster or have completed the COVID-19 Declination Form via the Campus Health Patient Portal. For more information, visit the COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement page.
Please note that the influenza (flu) vaccine is also required; however, at this time, Campus Health does not place holds on student accounts for the flu shot. This may change in the future, so students are advised to comply with the flu vaccine requirement.
Schedule for Placement of Holds
Vaccine holds are placed on student accounts on a set schedule.
- Fall Term - August 1 and October 1
- Spring Term – February 15
- Summer Term – June 15
Students are urged to take care of all immunization requirements well before these dates to avoid the hassle of registration holds.
We thank you for your attention to these important matters. We wish you safe travels and look forward to serving you on campus this spring.
Sincerely,
Campus Health
