March 6, 2020
The Vermont Department of Health (VT DOH) issued an advisory that as of March 4, following guidance from the CDC, travelers returning from China, Italy, South Korea, and Iran should stay home and monitor their health for 14 days after returning to the United States. Travelers returning from Japan should monitor their health for 14 days after returning to the United States. This is not retroactive. Those who returned prior to this advisory should continue self-monitoring. The reason for this is that travelers returning home today, as opposed to last weekend, had more opportunity for community exposure. The VT DOH requires that all who have traveled to areas where there have been COVID-19 outbreaks contact the VT DOH directly and closely monitor themselves for fever and other symptoms. The Health Department’s phone number is 802-863-7240.
The college’s Incident Response Team met again this week to review action items from last week and discuss scenario planning for the future should the coronavirus enter the area. Please be advised that the college does have an Emergency Action Plan already in place, which we will use in response to this evolving situation. Guidance about hygiene continues to be important, so please reference below for recommendations about best practices.
