Information about the current number of active COVID-19 cases and more can be found on Lafayette’s COVID-19 dashboard.
Per campus protocols, routine testing is done for unvaccinated students, faculty, and staff. The CDC does not recommend routine testing for vaccinated individuals. Beyond routine testing, Bailey Health Center will test any student who is symptomatic and any student identified as a close contact through contact tracing. Additional testing for concerned students may be done as time permits.
Contact tracing is done by trained medical personnel from Lehigh Valley Health Network. It is essential that students are open and honest with the tracers in describing the close contacts they have had. Students are not close contacts simply by living on the same residence hall floor or if they attend class together.
Close contacts will be treated as follows, per CDC guidance:
There is no benefit to asymptomatic, vaccinated individuals being tested immediately after the contact receives the positive test because a false negative test is more likely without the appropriate waiting period. Students cannot declare themselves close contacts of someone they know who has tested positive for COVID-19. They must be identified through the tracing process.
Families should have a plan for bringing students home to isolate if they live within 300 miles of Easton. Our ability to support students in isolation is limited, and students will be more comfortable at home where they can rest more easily and keep up with work. If you have immune-compromised members of your family at home, please think of alternative arrangements as the campus isolation space is limited and must be reserved for those whose homes are beyond the 300-mile radius.
It is critically important that your student notify Bailey Health Center if they’ve tested positive for COVID-19 off campus. Students will be unable to receive dean’s excuses for class or support from the College to help keep up with classwork if they do not report positive test results to the health center.
Like many campuses, we are seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases as students have spent more time in social settings. Students can do a lot to protect themselves: wearing their masks, avoiding indoor settings where people are unmasked (restaurants and other unmonitored social venues), staying home if sick and contacting Bailey Health Center, frequently washing their hands, and engaging in as many outdoor, rather than indoor, social activities as possible.