Don’t take COVID-19 with you
Prevent the spread when returning home, traveling
With the end of the semester and holidays right around the corner, students will return home, and many within the Central Michigan University community may plan to travel to visit family and friends.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, travel increases your chance of getting and spreading COVID-19. Anyone planning to travel outside of our community — or planning their return in January — should consider the following advice to prevent further spread of COVID-19:
Within two weeks prior to travel:
- Check for travel requirements or restrictions for your destination.
- Additional information for international students who plan to travel is available on the Office for Global Engagement website.
- Minimize risk of exposure and infection during the weeks leading up to your departure from campus or Mount Pleasant.
- Self-quarantine away from others (i.e., leave only for class, work, to get food and for medical appointments).
- Always wear a mask while around others.
- If you become infected or are identified as a close contact of someone who is COVID-19 positive, you will need to isolate or quarantine before traveling.
- Reduce your number of close contacts. Any close interaction with people outside of those who live in your immediate household or residence hall room will present a risk for infection.
Within a week of travel:
- Get tested: If you have symptoms related to COVID-19, are concerned you may have been exposed or just want to put your mind at ease, plan to be tested before you travel.
- COVID-19 testing for symptomatic individuals and close contacts is available on campus through Nov. 25.
- Surveillance testing is available on campus through Nov. 19.
- On-campus testing will not be offered between Nov. 25 and Jan. 6. To find a testing site near you during this time, visit the state of Michigan website.
When it is time to travel:
- Recheck any requirements or restrictions at your travel destination.
- Don't travel if you are sick or if you have been around someone with COVID-19 in the past 14 days. Don't travel with someone who is sick.
- Review the CDC's guidelines on when to delay travel.
Dr. George E. Kikano, CMU's vice president for health affairs and dean of the College of Medicine, said it is everyone's responsibility to help slow the spread of this virus.
"We must be vigilant to prevent taking this virus home to our families and spreading it further into other communities," Kikano said. "Also, we all must continue to wear masks, socially distance and wash our hands."
Sources:
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention