Private vs Shared Office Space, Reporting Illness, Online Screening

Following are responses to some feedback we’ve been receiving.

1. Private office versus shared office space-  If you have sole access to an office, you are not required to wear a mask while you are in the office.  For less clear-cut cases, such as offices with serial single occupancy, masks should be worn, and surfaces should be disinfected.  Aerosol and surface transmission may still occur even if only one person is occupying a shared space at any given time.
2. Reporting illness-  The Community Responsibility Acknowledgement form instructs people who experience symptoms to report to their supervisor, though as of right now, this should only serve to inform your advisor that you will need to work from home.  Anyone who is feeling sick should stay home, regardless of the illness, and let their advisors know that they will be working from home.

As members of the IU community, we all have access to the online screening. If you undergo this screening and have symptoms warranting in-person testing, Public Safety & Institutional Assurance (PSIA) will become involved in determining the level of contact you’ve had with others, whether rooms in the buildings will require additional disinfecting, etc.  Everyone’s health information is private, and to respect that privacy, there will not be open communication with anyone near the person or area in question, unless PSIA determines that close contact with the potentially infected person puts any other individuals at risk.

Be aware that certain rooms may be temporarily closed as a precaution if someone from Chemistry or an adjacent department is potentially infected. If you are not directly contacted by PSIA or EHS when a room is closed, it is because you are not considered at risk of exposure.  Out of respect each other’s privacy, please turn off your inner Scooby Doo (i.e., you should not attempt to investigate who is responsible for the room closure on your own).  REMINDER: Mask usage, social distancing, hand hygiene, etc. are all being observed to avoid close contact and minimize the spread of the virus.

As we continue to adapt to conducting research while observing CDC guidelines, we will undoubtedly encounter bumps in the road, safety practices that we should reconsider, etc.  I appreciate everyone’s efforts in working together to keep each other safe and healthy.