Dear Brown Community Members,

We are writing with important health and safety information and updates regarding the start of the Spring 2022 semester. We do so in the context of the ongoing rise in COVID-19 infections in Rhode Island and on campus due to the Omicron variant. While the rise in reported cases will require a number of changes in our COVID-19 strategy and approach in the coming weeks, we are guided by scientific consensus on the effectiveness of high vaccination rates and mask wearing. While we may need to make temporary modifications from time to time based on current conditions, there will not be any significant changes to University operations or activities. This includes maintaining current policies for visitors and guests and travel. We are announcing, and describe in greater detail below, the following:

• Important changes to asymptomatic testing and testing requirements on campus
• Changes to isolation policy for all students and employees, and isolation protocols for students
• Updates to masking requirements, distribution of high-quality KN95 masks and guidance for replacing cloth masks
• Academic planning and continuity
• Guidance for providing flexibility for staff related to COVID-19 family care commitments

As we communicated to the campus on Dec. 21, vaccinations plus boosters are very effective at preventing Omicron infections from developing into serious illness. In addition, the emerging scientific evidence indicates that Omicron presents a less serious risk for individuals, and given how widespread it has become, may represent an inflection point in the pandemic as society transitions to managing COVID as we do influenza and other serious respiratory viruses — exercising caution, minimizing contact with others when sick, and taking care of ourselves and others. The health protocols the University already has in place — requiring vaccinations and boosters for all members of our community unless an exemption is granted, maintaining an indoor mask mandate and following other public health measures — are highly effective at preventing serious illness from Omicron, which health experts have identified as a primary goal.

As we also communicated last month and we all know from our collective experience of the past several weeks, Omicron is highly transmissible and, like other respiratory viruses, very difficult to contain. Although reported Omicron cases are rising substantially locally and nationwide, our experience on campus and in New England is that for vaccinated and boosted people, the most common presentation continues to be mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. Accordingly, our focus will shift this semester from counting positive test results as an indicator of campus safety to actions that will further reduce the risk of serious illness and hospitalization while maintaining our mission of teaching and research as a residential academic community. We are confident in the Brown community’s collective ability to do so.

CHANGES IN ASYMPTOMATIC TESTING AND UPDATED TESTING REQUIREMENTS

We will end optional PCR testing for vaccinated community members on Friday, Jan. 14, and beginning on Monday, Jan. 17, make rapid antigen test kits and packs of KN95 masks available to all Brown students, faculty (including postdocs) and staff. Employees and students with approved exemptions from COVID-19 vaccination will continue to be required to PCR test twice a week as they currently do, and they will receive further direct communication later this week.

Since June 2020, the University has maintained an on-campus routine testing program utilizing PCR testing for asymptomatic people, which has been largely optional for vaccinated community members since early October. While that program has served the campus well, it is clear from emerging data that PCR tests are no longer the best available tool to reduce the risk of poor health outcomes from COVID-19 in a largely vaccinated and boosted population such as ours.

PCR tests are designed to detect fragments of viral RNA, and while they are highly effective at doing so, they cannot determine who is actively infected and contagious; who might have transient colonization that never turns into an infection; or who might have been infected and recovered weeks ago. A PCR positive test result for any member of our community on any given date could potentially mean they were infectious many weeks or even months earlier, and does little to help us reduce the risk of serious illness on campus now.

Rapid antigen tests answer the most important question in the Omicron era: “Am I infectious now?” They do so by detecting proteins from the virus that causes COVID-19. While no test is perfect, a positive rapid test result means that the person is very likely infectious at that point and must take steps to isolate themselves from others.

More information about the logistics of testing starting Jan. 17 will be available on the Testing and Tracing pages of the Healthy Brown website, but here are the basics you need to know now:

• Friday, Jan. 14, is the final day any vaccinated asymptomatic community member can schedule an optional PCR test through Verily.

• Starting on Monday, Jan. 17, rapid antigen test kits and KN95 masks will be available to Brown community members (undergraduate, graduate and medical students, and faculty and staff) for pickup at the Alumnae Hall and One Davol Test Kit Pickup Sites (you must have your Brown ID card with you; operating hours can be found on the pick-up sites page of Healthy Brown). The test kits are similar to the at-home tests many of you have likely used in recent weeks and include simple instructions on how to test yourself as needed. Initial distribution will be determined based on supply, and we will send an additional notice over the weekend to advise community members regarding how many tests they can pick up starting Monday. We will monitor conditions and distribute additional tests if necessary.

• Undergraduate students are required to take two rapid antigen tests upon return to campus (re-entry test requirement) and then to take two rapid antigen tests every week (weekly testing requirement) until health conditions reflect it is no longer necessary.

• • Re-entry test requirement: Take one test on the first day you return to campus or the first day tests are available to you if you are already here (day 1) and the second test two days later (day 3).

• • Weekly testing requirement: Take two rapid antigen tests each week, at least 24 hours apart. Undergraduates will be reminded to take their tests weekly and to report that they have done so.

• • As a reminder, undergraduate students are also required to take a COVID-19 test at home or wherever they may be two (2) days prior to returning to campus. Students who receive a negative result may return to campus as scheduled; students who receive a positive result must isolate at home and upload positive test results to the Health and Wellness Patient Portal using your Brown username and password. Students will be notified with authorization to return to campus.

• All students (undergraduate, graduate and medical) are required to report any positive test result to University Health Services via the Health and Wellness Patient Portal using your Brown username and password. Follow-up instructions from University Health Services will be provided to students. Those experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 or other respiratory illness should stay home from class and other activities and contact University Health Services as they normally do, and University Health Services will continue conducting symptomatic testing of student patients as they determine is clinically necessary.

• For faculty, staff, graduate students and medical students: As has been the case with PCR testing since October, asymptomatic testing remains optional for fully vaccinated graduate and medical students and faculty and staff. We encourage you to pick up rapid antigen test kits and KN95 masks starting Monday, and use an antigen test if you are experiencing symptoms, concerned about a potential exposure, preparing to attend a large event, or for other reasons at your discretion.

Faculty and staff with any positive test result are advised to contact their primary care provider and must report their positive test result to University Human Resources for follow-up instructions (send those results or a picture of your at-home test to leave_admin@health.brown.edu). Employees experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 or other respiratory illness must stay home and consult with their primary care provider.

• Testing of any type is not a substitute for monitoring and paying attention to the onset and development of symptoms. All Brown community members must stay home from work, class and/or other University events and functions if they are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19.

• The COVID-19 dashboard will stop being updated after the final day of PCR testing (Jan. 14). Because of the decreased efficacy of the dashboard as a measure of COVID-19 prevalence on campus with shifts in testing and infections, University Health Services and University Human Resources will be collecting information on self-reported positive test results, and the University will share that and other campus public health conditions information with the community through reinstated weekly Today@Brown COVID-19 updates.