UMD updates COVID-19 protocols, allows students to isolate on-campus

The University of Maryland has updated its COVID-19 isolation protocols to allow students who report a positive COVID-19 test to remain on campus.

The updated protocols, which are effective Nov. 1, were announced to students in an email Tuesday afternoon from the Department of Resident Life.

This university still recommends that students isolate off-campus if they’re living in on-campus residence halls or in a university-owned chapter house, according to the University Health Center HEAL Line. The new isolation protocols allow students in university residences who cannot isolate off-campus to remain in their on-campus rooms.

“The university does not provide designated isolation housing,” the email said. “For residence hall students who test positive and cannot isolate at an off-campus location, you may isolate in place in your residence hall room.”

[US House of Representatives subcommittee launches investigation into UMD COVID-19 policies]

Students who plan to isolate in their university residence need to notify their roommate and the HEAL line, the updated guidance said. Students also must abstain from class and campus activities and wear an N95 or KN95 mask around others during the isolation period, the email said.

“We feel strongly that this approach continues to align with public health guidance and is in the best interest of our community,” a spokesperson from the university said in an email to The Diamondback. “UMD has continued to monitor COVID-19 case numbers on campus and in Prince George’s County, even though the federal government health emergency was lifted in May 2023.”

This university’s updates come after the U.S. House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic launched an investigation this month into this university’s COVID-19 isolation protocols.

The subcommittee alleged that this university’s policy prior to Tuesday’s update, which required all students to isolate off-campus if they tested positive for the virus, placed unnecessary financial, academic and mental stress on students.