Student Health prepares for Spring Break

As Spring Break approaches, USC Student Health recommends students take extra safety precautions, such as researching coronavirus case levels in the places they travel to, getting tested — preferably using PCR tests — before visiting vulnerable friends and family and staying up to date on vaccines.

“At this point, given the change of where we are with COVID with the dropping rates, it’s really about knowing your individual risk, [knowing] the risk of where you’re going … and then getting prepared to be tested before and after travel,” said Chief Health Officer Dr. Sarah Van Orman at a student media health briefing Tuesday.

The University encourages all students to test within 24 hours of returning to campus, Van Orman said. Students who test positive must inform the University, then take a PCR test and isolate.

Additionally, Van Orman recommends that all students wear N95 masks — available on campus to students at no cost — when traveling or in large crowds. 

Approximately 82% of students are currently fully vaccinated and boosted, Van Orman said. Student Health wishes to see this rate increase and continues to encourage eligible students to get boosted.

“Our data from the beginning part of this semester showed that not being boosted is a risk factor for becoming infected, so we really encourage people to get their boosters,” Van Orman said. 

Students who are not boosted must test prior to accessing campus. USC’s COVID-19 Dashboard, which displays current positivity rates among students and employees, will continue to be updated, although percent positivity will not reflect case numbers across the community holistically as weekly surveillance testing is no longer required for boosted students.

“The people that are testing are going to … because they have symptoms or have been exposed,” Van Orman said. “So our percent positivity may increase even though our total number of cases doesn’t increase.”

Despite changes in testing requirements, the current positivity rate remains low, with last week’s student positivity rate being less than 0.5%. 

“​​We’re seeing very few cases right now, which is consistent with what we’re seeing within the rest of [Los Angeles] County,” Van Orman said. “Cases are very low right now on campus — the lowest they’ve been in several months.”

The University is now aligned with L.A. County’s masking policies, as students are no longer required to wear masks in most indoor settings — including classrooms, offices and residential dining facilities. Although masks are no longer required, they are still highly recommended, Van Orman said. 

“I’m really stressing to everybody is that masks are still highly recommended,” Van Orman said. “We will still provide masks; it’s really important that people feel comfortable wearing masks.”

Teachers are not allowed to individually require that students wear masks to their class, Van Orman said.

“It’s really kind of an equity thing because, for example, our workers in the [Recreational Center] or the cafeteria or other places couldn’t ask people around them to wear masks, so really, we want to be fair across campus,” Van Orman said.

Despite the mask mandate lifting and the removal of weekly surveillance testing, Van Orman said Student Health continues to closely monitor the well being and safety of students on campus. Individuals who aren’t fully vaccinated will continue to test and have their positivity rates monitored, which she said is a good indicator of rising coronavirus levels in the community. Additionally, the school does wastewater testing on water leaving campus residences to screen for the virus.

As testing levels decrease, some coronavirus testing sites will close, Van Orman said. The bookstore location has shut down and the Pardee Marks location will close over Spring Break. Employees working at these locations are all regular Student Health employees and will handle other responsibilities, she said. 

“We’re really watching with our peers what happens over the next few weeks, particularly because we’re on Spring Break and so making sure that we don’t have a significant increase of cases related to Spring Break,” Van Orman said. “Any decisions about any further changes will be made one, after the city and the county ordinances change, and then two … after that Spring Break period.”