SEPT. 3, 2020 UPDATE

To the community,

With graduate and professional school students already in the Upper Valley and just under half of the undergraduate population arriving next week, we'd like to highlight important aspects of our health and safety plan, which we need your help in carrying out as we work to protect those in our community from COVID-19.

* Face coverings must be worn indoors at all times except when you are alone in a private space, such as your dorm room or office, or when you are eating. That means in hallways, conference rooms, classrooms, and entryways--masks should be worn in any and all spaces whenever another person could be present, even if you are initially in that space alone. If you see someone not wearing a mask in such a space, consider asking them to "please mask up." Masks should also be worn outdoors on campus and in Hanover, in accordance with the town's mask ordinance.

* Please maintain physical distancing of at least 6 feet between yourself and others at all times, both indoors and outside.

* Please note the requirements in our travel and quarantine policies. We continue to benefit from extremely low rates of virus transmission in the Upper Valley. Our testing and quarantine plan is designed to limit the transmission of the virus within our community by people arriving from outside New England. However, exposure is not limited to arrival, it includes trips within and outside of the Upper Valley, which is why we have put in place travel and quarantine policies that seek to reduce potential travel exposure.

Currently, those who must travel outside New England are required to quarantine for 14 days upon their return in accordance with New Hampshire guidelines, even if they test negative for the virus before the 14 days have passed. Since the significance of a test showing that you've had the virus—an antibody test—is unclear at this time, a positive antibody test does not affect the quarantine requirement or its duration. During the quarantine period access to the campus is prohibited. Dartmouth's quarantine requirements may be updated if New Hampshire's guidelines change.

Concerns about violations of our COVID-19 policies by members of the Dartmouth community may be reported using this form. Please note that this is not an emergency response tool.

Employee testing formally began yesterday and will continue for baseline testing through the month of September and then continue with ongoing surveillance testing throughout the term. Faculty and staff who have been identified as those needing to work on campus during fall term will be notified by email to schedule their test. Employees who have questions about testing should contact Human Resources at (603) 646-3411 or human.resources@dartmouth.edu.

As part of our comprehensive COVID-19 testing program, and to keep you informed, we have launched a tracking dashboard. Visit our tracking dashboard to see how many people in the Dartmouth community have been tested, find overall testing results, and see how many individuals on our campus are in isolation or quarantining. In addition, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services has launched a dashboard of current cases and outbreaks for all schools in the state.

We know this remains a challenging time and we thank you for doing your part to help protect our community.

Sincerely,

Dr. Lisa V. Adams
Joshua Keniston
Co-chairs, Dartmouth COVID-19 Task Force