Case or Outbreak of COVID-19 on U of A Campus

Last Updated July 30, 2020

In the event of a single case or outbreak of COVID-19 at the U of A, the university will activate its Rapid Response Plan, which involves the affected employees or students, their supervisor/instructors, and several U of A groups to help coordinate the university’s response to COVID-19, including the Public Health Response Team (PHRT) and the Rapid Response Triage Team.

For the purposes of the university’s response, an outbreak is defined as “any two or more employees/clients that are a laboratory-confirmed case of COVID-19, work in the same areas AND their most likely source of acquiring infection is their work site(s) and/or work camp(s).”

If you are an employee or student who has been on campus and has COVID-19 like symptoms:

• Isolate yourself and notify your supervisor/instructor(s) immediately.
• Follow the instructions provided in the appropriate document below:
  • COVID-19 Procedure for Sick Employees
  • COVID-19 Procedure for Sick Students

If you are a supervisor/instructor who has been notified of a presumptive case:

• Instruct the employee/student to isolate, to complete the AHS COVID-19 online self-assessment, and/or to contact 811 HEALTHLink for medical advice and/or to book COVID-19 testing. 
• As soon as possible, call the U of A Unified Communications Centre at 780-492-5555 and provide your name and contact phone number and the name and contact information of the individual who is isolating. 
• You will be contacted by a member of the U of A’s Rapid Response Triage Team for an initial assessment of the case to determine necessary next steps in accordance with AHS COVID-19 guidelines. The Triage Team is a group of university-based health and safety professionals who help manage the university’s COVID-19 response and support those involved.
• The Triage Team will keep you informed of next steps including any instructions from AHS and the PHRT. 
• The Triage Team Member may be required to collect contact tracing information and share it with AHS. For employees working on U of A Campuses, supervisors are required to document who is in the workplace, at what locations, and the individuals’ ualberta email address on a daily basis. There are two options for documenting staff at work: a staff check-in tool (available soon) or, as a supervisor, you can maintain one of the two recommended logs (Work Team Weekly Attendance Log or U of A Campus Attendance Record Template).
• The Triage Team Member will continue to monitor the situation and will notify you when your unit can return to normal activity.