Covid-19 Incident Reporting

Content last updated: Nov. 5, 2020

Report a Covid-Related Incident

Covid-19 reporting is important to College of The Albemarle (COA) to help us provide an effective learning environment while ensuring everyone’s safety. All students — whether they attend classes/labs on campus or not — need to report any Covid-19 related incidents.

Student Reporting Flow

1. Student incident report is sent to the Vice President, Student Success and Enrollment Management
2. Vice President, Student Success and Enrollment Management notifies the Accessibility and Conduct Coordinator
3. Accessibility and Conduct Coordinator notifies the Public Information Officer
4. Public Information Officer notifies the Health Department
5. President, Chief Operating Officer, Dean and Director of Human Resources are notified
6. Dean notifies the Instructor that a student Covid-related report was submitted
7. Full Disclosure/location published

“What will happen if we have a confirmed positive for Covid-19 on campus or identify someone who was on campus?”

COA’s Public Information Officer will contact the local health officials for assistance in determining a plan of action for the college.

Administrators will work closely with local health officials to determine if a short-term closure (for two to five days) of all campus buildings and facilities is needed. Depending on the situation, we may only need to close buildings and facilities that had been entered by the individual(s) with Covid-19. This initial short-term class suspension and event and activity cancellation allows time for the local health officials to gain a better understanding of the Covid-19 situation and for custodial staff to clean and disinfect the affected facilities. It also allows the local health officials and administrators to determine appropriate next steps, including whether an extended duration is needed to stop or slow further spread of Covid-19.

References

CDC: “Considerations for Institutions of Higher Education”

CDC: “10 things you can do to manage your Covid-19 symptoms at home”

Security

Security will play a major roll with the current procedures that are in place in order for COA to continue face-to-face instruction. Current procedures that are in place and will be enforced 100 percent of the time are:

Face masks are required while inside a COA building unless you are an employee and in your office or work space. The exception to this is if you have a medical condition that allows no mask. You must provide a medical note to the Director of Human Resources. No additional proof or documentation is required if an employee has been granted a reasonable accommodation under the American with Disabilities Act from the Human Resources Office for exemption.

Social distancing is required. Security will monitor gatherings in the hallways and outside gathering areas to ensure no gatherings of more than 10 people. Security will also ensure that students and staff members waiting in lines are practicing social distancing. COA has placed markers on the floor to help with maintaining the required six-foot separation.

Other items to pay attention to:

• No more than two people in restrooms
• No more than one person on the elevators

Security has the authority to remove students from the campus for a period of up to two days if the student/students fail to become compliant.

As we move forward and we start to reopen certain parts of the campuses, we will need to modify our security posture to provide additional access locations.

At this time, each campus has security manning the central point of entry. COA – Edenton-Chowan has a modified version of this due to the layout of COA’s footprint at this location.

In the future, our security posture will depend primarily on the State and Federal requirements in place, and the needs of COA.

Student Building Access

All campus locations are currently using a single point of entry, and will continue to do so until the Covid-19 situation improves.