Miami to require negative COVID tests prior to on-campus move-in

According to a Jan. 12 email sent to the Miami University community from the COVID Response Team, on-campus students will be required to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test before moving back into their residence halls.

The email also confirmed that the spring semester will begin as scheduled with in-person instruction on Jan. 24.

The test must have been completed no more than three days prior to move-in to be considered valid, and it must be either a PCR test or a proctored antigen test. Students who test positive are required to wait until their isolation period ends before moving in.

“It’s important to schedule your test now given the high demand for tests,” the email reads. “Most local pharmacies should have appointments available a week in advance, so schedule those now.”

The email also states that surveillance testing will continue during the spring semester, but participation will be voluntary. Each week, random samples of students will be drawn, and those students will be invited to get tested, but will not be required to do so, as they have previously.

Miami will also alter its quarantine and isolation protocols this semester due to changes in the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) recommendations.

Students who have not been vaccinated or who received their most recent dose of the COVID-19 vaccine more than five months ago will be placed into quarantine if they’re identified as a close contact with someone who has tested positive.

Those who received their most recent dose less than five months ago, received a booster shot or had a positive COVID test within 90 days will not be required to quarantine.

Because on-campus quarantine and isolation locations are limited, priority will be given to those who have tested positive and need to isolate.

If there are no open spots, students placed into quarantine who live within 150 miles of Oxford will need to either return home or find a place to stay locally.

“While we will attempt and make every effort to accommodate student needs around [quarantine and isolation], all on-campus students should arrive back to campus with a plan about where they would isolate or quarantine off-campus (either locally, e.g. in a local hotel or with a friend, or at home) if there were no remaining on-campus spaces available,” the email reads.

The email emphasizes again that masks will be required on Miami’s campus for at least the first month of the semester.

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Finally, the email states TriHealth will be offering a booster shot clinic for all Miami employees and their dependents who are at least 16 years old on Friday, Jan. 14 in the Armstrong Student Center. Interested employees should sign up online by noon on Jan. 13.

@madphabes

phabymr@miamioh.edu