Contact Tracing Protocols

The HPU Contact Tracing Team has been tasked with the responsibility of mitigating the spread of COVID-19 on the Howard Payne University campus through identifying on-campus students and personnel who have come in contact with an individual who has tested positive for COVID-19 and may be at risk of contracting COVID-19 because of the exposure. Members of the HPU Contact Tracing Team have been instructed in contact tracing best practices in order to efficiently and effectively identify and isolate exposed individuals within the campus community. The identification of infected individuals will not be disclosed to those who are contacted regarding exposure, and information related to the exposure will be provided in a non-identifiable manner. The process for contact tracing is as follows:

1. The University is informed of a positive COVID-19 test on campus by the HPU Self-Reporting Form or by the Brownwood-Brown County Health Department
2. The individual who tested positive immediately begins their self-isolation
3. The HPU Contact Tracing Team contacts the individual who tested positive and interviews them regarding their movements and contacts in the two days prior to the start of the individual’s COVID-19 symptoms (in the case of a symptomatic individual), or two days prior to the date that the individuals COVID-19 test was conducted (in the case of an asymptomatic individual)
4. The HPU Contact Tracing Team informs the individual of the University’s expectations related to their self-isolation
5. The individual who tested positive receives the HPU Self-Isolation Information Packet, completes an interview with the HPU Contact Tracing Team, and signs the HPU Self-Isolation Protocols Acknowledgement Form
6. The HPU Contact Tracing Team alerts the course instructors, University Nurse, resident director and resident assistant (if applicable), on-campus employment supervisor (if applicable), and University Athletics Department (if applicable) on behalf of the student who tested positive
7. The University provides the Brownwood-Brown County Health Department with the information of the non-University persons exposed to the individual who tested positive