COVID-19 Testing Procedures

Testing now takes place at Hales Gym.

• When you approach the entrance to the testing location, Mercy Health – Allen Hospital employees will take your temperature and ask you a series of questions required by the Centers for Disease Control.

• If you have a fever, you will be asked to step aside for additional evaluation and may receive a separate, more rapid COVID test at Mercy. If you do not have a fever or other symptoms, you will enter the testing area.

• After standing in a line organized at 6-foot intervals for distancing, you will register, complete a consent form and answer questions the Ohio Department of Health requires, and receive a labeled bag with the vial that will ultimately hold your sample. See the section on paperwork below for more details about the form.

• You will be directed to another line, where you will wait for one of eight testing bays to become available. A health care professional will be there to take your sample, label it and place it in a bag.

• You will then be able to leave the building, and the labeled bag with your sample will remain with the health care professional until it is shipped to Tempus that day.

Federal Express is picking up the Oberlin samples twice a day for shipment to Tempus in Chicago.

Reporting the test results requires a knowledge of federal privacy and health care law. We also have responsibility to Lorain County Public Health. Tempus will report results to Mercy Health – Allen Hospital, which will use email to notify individuals and the student health center of the test results.

In the event of a positive test:

• Mercy Health – Allen Hospital is obligated to notify students of a positive result first. The hospital also will notify Lorain County Public Health. Tempus is required to notify a student’s home county health department.

• Faculty and staff will be directed home and advised to consult their doctor.

• Student Health Services will contact those students who test positive and help determine next steps. Depending upon the severity of symptoms, students could see a doctor or isolate in The Hotel at Oberlin, which will be dedicated to housing those who test positive.

• The Oberlin contact tracing team, in collaboration with Lorain County Public Health, will begin contact tracing, determining who on campus may need to quarantine if their exposure to the COVID-19 positive person warrants such action.

The COVID-19 consent for testing and authorization/release form is required for taking the test. This type of form is a common requirement for medical appointments.

The form is brief and will not take long to complete. You can download the PDF file to read the entire form. There are several types of questions you’ll be asked to answer:

• Your name and contact information

• Your emergency contact information

• Your consent to testing and information about privacy and who has access to information about your test results

On the back of the form, you’ll be asked a short list of health and demographic questions. These questions include:

• Whether you have had a COVID-19 test before

• Whether you are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19

• Whether you are pregnant

• Whether you live in a congregate setting. Students please note that a college residence hall is not a congregate care setting. “Congregate care settings” are group housing situations that provide healthcare (e.g. a nursing home or a residential treatment program) and/or social services (such as a shelter for people who are homeless and/or leaving family violence or a “group home” for children in foster care who are not currently living with a foster parent). If you have lived in a congregate care setting at some point in 2020, please answer “yes” to this question.

• Demographic information, including ethnicity/race, gender, and age.

You might wonder why you would be asked questions about your identity or about pregnancy when you are getting a nasal swab test to detect a virus. The demographic and pregnancy information helps public health officials and researchers learn more about the virus, its transmission, and its impact, which may vary for different age groups and identities.

Some of these questions ask you to describe yourself using a limited number of terms - for example, for gender you may indicate “male,” “female,” or “other.” While you may have experienced more options in college forms, the Ohio Department of Health determined what questions to ask and how they may be answered as part of their reporting process. You may find that your choice of answers may not map well onto how you understand yourself and your identities. We apologize for any frustration this may cause and ask that you consider providing as much information as possible, as this data helps health public health and medical professionals address health disparities.