With the rapid spread of the COVID-19 omicron variant in Massachusetts and New England, UMass Lowell has updated its isolation protocols for residential students who tests positive.

COVID-19 test before returning to campus: If at all possible, please get a COVID-19 test (and wait for your results) prior to returning to the residence halls for the spring 2022 semester. Ideally, please get tested (rapid antigen tests or PCR tests if available) the day before or morning of your departure to campus and wait for the results before departing so that you can stay home and isolate there if your test is positive.

Isolate off campus if you test positive:  Once on campus, all students living in our residence halls who test positive for COVID-19 will be expected to isolate off campus. That could mean going home or to another location.  This is in an effort to keep our entire campus community safe. Please make a plan to isolate off campus if you test positive for COVID-19. 

Potential need to isolate on campus: We recognize that off-campus isolation will not be possible for some of our residential students. We have a very limited number of isolation rooms at our Inn & Conference Center (ICC) for residential students unable to isolate off campus or elsewhere.  Please be aware that with this limited capacity, students may be required to share a room with other students who test positive for COVID-19.

Potential need to isolate in place: Should positive cases quickly escalate and exhaust our supply of isolation rooms at the ICC, our vaccination and booster requirements will allow students to isolate in their residence hall rooms (if they are unable to isolate off campus) while following CDC guidance.

Based on current conditions, we expect many students who test positive will be asymptomatic or exhibit only mild systems. The vaccines allow us to approach the upcoming surge more like a cold or flu season. We ask students to prepare for this possibility by bringing supplies (including over the counter medications) with them to enable self-isolation if necessary.

For more details about our isolation plan, please see below.

If a student tests positive for COVID-19 and needs to isolate on campus, we plan to do the following:

• A student who is truly unable to return home could be moved to one of our isolation spaces at our Inn & Conference Center (ICC).  Please note, we have limited (30 double occupancy rooms) for isolation use.
• Students isolating at the ICC may be assigned a roommate who has also tested positive for COVID-19 so we maximize the space we have.
• With the current COVID-19 surge, we know we may need to isolate more than 60 students while the Omicron surge continues.  If that happens, students will need to isolate in place – in their current residence hall.  This could have an impact on roommates, suitemates and apartment-mates.  Again, if you test positive, the expectation is that you isolate off campus if at all possible.
• If a student isolates in place on campus, they will need to wear a mask or face covering when around any roommates, suitemates, or apartment mates.   Students may need to create plans within their living space in case sleeping arrangements need to be altered during this time – to allow for separation of students while sleeping without a mask or face covering.
• Per standard procedures, students living in suites and apartments will be responsible for cleaning their own bathrooms, common spaces and the like.  Please plan accordingly and bring cleaning supplies per standard routines.
• Students living in a traditional residence hall using community bathrooms should:
  • Always wear a mask or face covering while traveling from their room to the bathroom.  Only remove mask or face covering while using showers, etc and continue to stay 6+ feet apart from other students.
    • Bathroom cleaning schedules will be posted.
• Students in isolation at the ICC will receive meals at the ICC.
• Students isolating in place will leave their room (with mask or face covering) to pick up their food from a central location.
• Students isolating in place should only leave their room to:
  • Use a community bathroom
  • Pick up food

Additional isolation information will be provided to the student from our Health Services and Residence Life teams.

Staff and students at the university were able to keep the spread of COVID-19 minimal in the fall by adhering to strict cleaning practices, guest restrictions, and policy enforcement and will continue these practices in the spring with the same intended result.  As we have shared before – we do hope to go back to previous practices – such as allowing non-residential guests into our residence halls, once we move past this surge.  

As always, we thank you for your cooperation and patience.