The Medical Center has updated their guidance for employees and healthcare students who have had a household COVID exposure. Household exposures create the highest risk for acquisition of COVID. In compliance with CDC recommendations, asymptomatic testing is recommended for vaccinated and unvaccinated healthcare students who have a household exposure. Students with a household exposure may continue to work while masked if they remain asymptomatic but should follow the new VUMC testing rules recently implemented for employees.
Students should do home tests on days 1 and 3 after their contact's symptom onset (which is day 0). A PCR test should be done on day 5 at the Student Health Center. If day 5 falls on a Saturday, the student should have the PCR test on the Friday afternoon. If day 5 falls on a Sunday, the test should be done on Monday morning. Please email studenthealth@vumc.org to notify Student Health of your household exposure and the need for Day 5 PCR testing. You will then be contacted via My Health at Vanderbilt regarding your testing.
If the day 1 or day 3 home test is positive, you must remain out of the classroom and clinical duties.
Isolation instructions for positive tests: You should self-report your isolation to your supervisor/professors.
If you are not Immunocompromised and have no risks for severe disease (see below): Day 0 is the day of your test (or the first day of symptoms if they have developed), and you must isolate until AFTER day 7 (return to duties day 8) if you are improving, unless you have a negative test on day 5. You may return to duties on day 6 if you are not able to document a negative test on day 4 or 5. It is rare that this happens, so most students will need to wait to return on day 8.
If you are not improving, please schedule an appointment at Student Health.
If you are not immunocompromised but have risk factors for more severe COVID-19 (see below), you may be eligible for Paxlovid or other anti-viral therapies. Please contact your healthcare provider at My Health At Vanderbilt. Risk factors for severe COVID-19 include:
- Being unvaccinated or if you have not received at least one bivalent booster (these came out Fall 2022)
- Specific medical conditions and behaviors
- Age over 50 years, with risk increasing substantially at age > 65 years
If you are Immunocompromised: Please contact your healthcare provider at My Health At Vanderbilt for guidance on your isolation, as you likely will need to isolate longer than the standard 7 days and would be eligible for Paxlovid or other anti-viral treatments