When will Stanford conduct contact tracing?
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When an individual, who tested positive for COVID-19, has been onsite during their infectious period, the Stanford University Occupational Health Center (OHC) and Vaden Health Services will ask them to help identify potential high-risk close contacts.
What’s a high-risk close contact?
A high-risk close contact is a person who has had indoor unmasked and prolonged exposure (15 minutes, can be cumulative over time) to a positive case. Think: sharing a room, eating together indoors, riding together in a car, intimate partners. Unvaccinated individuals who have had close contact with a positive individual, are also high-risk close contacts.
Stanford University will reach out to high-risk close contacts through Vaden (students) and the OHC (faculty/staff/postdocs). Those who feel they have had high-risk close contact with a positive individual onsite, and have not been contacted by Vaden/OHC, should:
- Complete Health Check to report the exposure. (Students should also call Vaden).
- Follow any onsite access restrictions and await a call or email from Vaden/OHC, if you receive a red badge from Health Check.
- Perform a COVID test, such as through the Color program. If you know when the exposure occurred, try to test 3-5 days after this exposure.
What’s a lower-risk close contact?
A lower-risk close contact is someone who has been in contact with a positive case indoors or outdoors with both parties wearing face coverings, or outdoors without face coverings but physically distanced.
All lower-risk close contacts who receive an exposure notification, whether vaccinated or not, should:
- Submit a Color test immediately.
- Then follow their normal testing cadence.