Health and Wellness
Taking Care of Yourself and Others
Cloth Masks
Guidelines While On Campus
Wearing cloth masks at all times when inside university buildings will be mandatory except when alone in a private office, eating at a campus dining facility, or when students are in their own residence hall rooms. Special considerations and exemptions apply for those with specific needs.
Wearing cloth masks in outdoor spaces will be encouraged, especially if social distancing isn’t possible.
If members of the general public who are not part of the UT community enter a campus building and refuse to wear a mask, they will be asked to leave. This is also true for contractors and vendors.
UT will encourage compliance by increasing awareness and fostering a spirit of cooperation. For those who continue putting the community at risk with their behavior, corrective and disciplinary action may be taken in accordance with the university’s guidelines for faculty, staff and students.
The university will provide cloth masks for employees who require this type of personal protective equipment to perform their daily work and will have limited supplies available for other urgent needs.
Mask Wearing Best Practices
Make sure your cloth mask covers both your nose and mouth.
Take care when putting on and taking off your cloth mask, washing hands after both.
Wash your cloth masks frequently.
Cloth masks are not a substitute for social distancing 6 feet from others. You are most protected when you do both.
When you cannot wear a cloth mask — such as when eating or drinking — maintain social distancing. To maintain safety in classrooms, students and instructors will not eat or drink in class.
Daily Symptom and Temperature Screening
Daily Symptom Screening
Daily symptom screening with the university’s Protect Texas Together app, to be launched by mid-August, will be expected for all students, faculty, and staff coming to campus or living on campus. Guidance for Daily Symptom and Temperature Screening
Temperature Screening in Select Buildings
For select campus buildings and units, in-person temperature screenings will be required. One such building is Dell Medical School’s Health Transformation Building, home to UT Health Austin clinics.
Symptom Screening by Visitors
Visitors will be expected to complete a symptom screening to participate in campus meetings or other activities.
How the Virus Spreads
Learn more about how the virus is spread.
Wash Your Hands
Hand hygiene products and cleaning stations will be available across campus
The university will continue to educate the campus community about the importance of hand hygiene through posters and other communication tools. Guidance for Hand Hygiene and Personal Workplace Hygiene
Individual Behavior
The success of the community will depend on a combination of university action, outlined above, and individual behaviors. As a reminder:
If you are sick, stay home.
Wash your hands well and often.
Carry your own hand sanitizer and surface wipes.
Wear a cloth mask indoors.
Keep 6 feet of distance between yourself and others whenever possible.
Avoid touching your face and cloth mask.
Keep your hands clean: Sneeze and cough into your elbow, and open doors without your hands if possible.
When possible, meet online or outdoors and in larger common areas, not private offices.
COVID-19 Testing and Tracing
To augment existing campus testing capacity, UT is setting up a facility that could perform up to 1,500 tests per day, barring any disruption to the supply chain. The university has a plan to test those who are symptomatic and preventively monitor the health of the UT population.
- University Health Services will be conducting testing for symptomatic students. Those with symptoms should call the University Health Services Nurse Advice Line at 512-475-6877. More information about testing with University Health Services.
- UT Health Austin will be conducting testing for symptomatic staff members.
- Whether your test is negative or positive, a health care professional will provide additional instructions as necessary and applicable to your circumstances.
- Individuals are thought to be most contagious when they are most symptomatic. However, transmission is possible when an infected person has mild or no symptoms,
- UT is developing a plan for proactive community testing of well individuals on a voluntary basis. Such proactive community testing can help us further reduce the spread of COVID-19 while creating a more complete picture of the presence and impact of the disease on campus. We will build on-campus capabilities to conduct proactive community testing consistent with epidemiological recommendations.
- UHS will be conducting proactive community testing for students, faculty and staff.
- The university, under agreement with Austin Public Health, will conduct contact tracing for UT community members who test positive for COVID-19.
- Contact tracing helps slow the spread of COVID-19 by identifying individuals who have been in close contact with those who test positive so that they know to get tested as well, or when necessary, to self-isolate.
- Information voluntarily shared with contact tracers will be kept confidential and used for public health purposes only.
- Guidance for Screening, Testing and Contact Tracing
Special Circumstances
Faculty, Students, and Staff over 65 or with Underlying Conditions
The university is developing training materials on basic safety precautions for students, staff and faculty to complete prior to the start of the fall semester.
Employees needing accommodations for special circumstances should work with their supervisors or contact Human Resources.
Students needing ADA accommodations should contact Services for Students with Disabilities. All other students with special circumstances should contact Student Emergency Services.
Quarantine and Isolation
UT community members who test positive or have been identified as high risk because of exposure will be expected to self-isolate or quarantine, as directed by health care professionals.
If they can’t self-isolate or quarantine safely in their residence — whether living on or off campus — they will coordinate with the university to access isolation spaces through Austin Public Health at the Crowne Plaza Austin. If the Crowne Plaza Austin becomes full, Austin Public Health has contracts with two additional hotels.
- The facility will be available to those who need to self-monitor due to COVID-19 exposure, have symptoms consistent with COVID-19 but have not been tested or are awaiting test results, or have tested positive for COVID-19.
- It is also open to those who live with high-risk individuals or live in a group home and those experiencing homelessness whether sheltered or unsheltered.
