A Safe Reopening Informed by Science

Under the University of California San Diego’s Return to Learn program, fall quarter has been off to a safe start.

“Since mid-March, UC San Diego has relied on the expertise of our world-renowned faculty and medical doctors to thoughtfully plan for returning to in-person teaching and research on campus in the safest way possible,” said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “We were the first university to announce a commitment to incrementally repopulating our campus, and we have taken the necessary time to develop a flexible Return to Learn plan to do so prudently.”

About 5,730 undergraduate students moved on campus over a 10-day period, Sept. 19-29. The university mapped out a staggered move-in process to allow for physical distancing as well as mandatory testing, all in an effort to provide a world-class education to students amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the time of student move-in, the UC San Diego Center for Advanced Laboratory Medicine (CALM) averaged 1,500 tests daily for two weeks straight. Most test results were returned the next day, with an average turnaround of 15 hours.

Thousands of tests were administered to students over the 10 days. Only 10 students tested positive and more than 5,700 tested negative.

These students were found to be asymptomatically shedding the virus, equating to a positivity rate of 0.17% out of the nearly 6,000 undergraduates who moved on campus. These students received clinical guidance and were promptly moved to isolation housing (the university currently has more than 600 beds to accommodate such needs). They will move back into their general campus housing as soon as they are no longer potentially infectious to others.

Move-in is just one part of UC San Diego’s nationally recognized, evidence-based comprehensive safety program to incrementally return to in-person activities on campus. The plan includes face-covering requirements, frequent asymptomatic and symptomatic testing, wastewater monitoring, case isolation, exposure notification and contact tracing, aided by the use of a new mobile exposure notification system that lets users know if they’ve had contact with infected people. Additionally, the campus is maintaining a low-density population.

“Our Return to Learn approach is guided by three key pillars: risk mitigation, virus detection and intervention. During the spring and summer, we successfully tested this approach on our campus with a limited number of students, researchers, faculty and staff. This approach is currently working very well for our campus,” Khosla added. “With that said, the adaptability of our plan is key to our continued success. If necessary, our campus operations will shift should we see significant changes in the public health of our campus or of the larger San Diego community.”

In addition to guidance from public health agencies, the Return to Learn program is driven by the expertise from the UC San Diego School of Medicine, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science and health-care experts from UC San Diego Health.

Photo Source: Erik Jepsen

Detailed safety protocols during move-in

All students living on campus reside in apartments or residence-hall suites and have their own bedrooms. As students and families arrived in their vehicles during move-in, they participated in drive-through testing for SARS-CoV-2 and were allowed to proceed to their residential area. Walk-up testing was available as well.

[WRAP-LEFT] Photo Source: Erik Jepsen

[WRAP-LEFT] Photo Source: Erik Jepsen

Move-in was staggered to avoid congestion at the residential units. While test results have been available within less than 24 hours, students continued to remain masked (except when showering or when alone in their personal bedroom) and maintain social distancing for the following two weeks while others continued to arrive.

All UC San Diego students residing on campus or coming to campus for any reason will be required to have testing for SARS-CoV-2 twice a month throughout the academic year. Each test is at least 12 days apart, with no more than 16 days between tests.

Cutting-edge wastewater monitoring

Wastewater monitoring is also part of the campus’s viral detection strategies. UC San Diego has been testing sewage from two health facilities, a research building and one residence area. These efforts have already proven helpful in identifying individuals shedding virus and potentially exposing others. The virus was detected on Sept. 4 from the waste stream on the southern part of the campus, and prompt messaging notified those on campus of the situation, urging them to be tested as soon as possible. More than 657 campus community members responded by getting screened for the virus within three days. The process helped identify two asymptomatic employees who self-isolated.

The campus will scale up wastewater testing considerably in the coming months, through advanced technologies provided by the Knight Lab within the campus’s Center for Microbiome Innovation.

Photo Source: Erik Jepsen

Fighting COVID-19 with technology

Contact tracing is another vital part of the Return to Learn plan, and the campus is leveraging new technology on Apple and Android smartphones to help rapidly control COVID-19 outbreaks. Students and staff can voluntary opt in to an anonymous exposure notification system that lets users know if they have come into contact with someone who later tests positive for COVID-19.

For every person who adds and uses the notification system on their smartphone, the greater the possibility of quick detection. This voluntary program is the first pilot for the state of California and will be followed by a pilot at UC San Francisco. If the pilot is successful, it will set the foundation for the state to offer voluntary exposure notifications to all Californians using smartphone-based technology.

The power of peer education to prevent viral transmissions

More than 200 peer educators called Triton Health Ambassadors are working to educate students on the importance of wearing masks and staying six feet apart. In addition, resident advisers (RAs) have been trained in health and safety best practices. Together, the ambassadors and RAs have helped welcome and support students during the move-in process and serve as role models for responsible behavior to ensure the health and safety of the entire UC San Diego community.

This content was paid for and created by UC San Diego. The editorial staff of The Chronicle had no role in its preparation. Find out more about paid content.

Students on campus have been masking, following public health guidelines and making sacrifices to keep themselves and our community safe. [Photo Source: Erik Jepsen]