COVID-19 Announcements and FAQs
COVID-19 Announcements and FAQs
Last updated January 18, 2022.
Spring 2022 Arrival
Please register your arrival time within the Yale College housing portal.
The January 10 deadline has passed for registering your arrival, so many slots are no longer available. Weekdays have the most capacity, especially for testing; arriving on a weekday will also help balance the demands on isolation housing. You need to register to make sure you have card access and to help the public health team plan.
Registration is required
Test as soon as you return to campus, ideally on the day you arrive. Make that appointment now, as demand for testing is high. If you are already in New Haven, start testing now. If you need to change your testing appointment, please make sure to cancel your first one to make that time available for someone else.
After your arrival test, resume your usual Monday-Thursday or Tuesday-Friday testing pattern, which you can view in the Yale Hub. This may mean you test two days in a row; that is okay. You can make these appointments now as well.
Schedule your arrival and routine testing appointments using the following link:
You may get either a rapid test within 24 hours of travel or a PCR test within 72 hours. Please wait until you get your results before you travel. You do not need to submit your test results, but if you test positive:
- Call the Campus COVID-19 Resource Line at (203) 432-6604 for instructions.
- Do not come to campus until after you complete your isolation.
If you have tested positive for COVID-19 within the past 90 days outside of the Yale Health system, it is important to let the Yale Health team know. Email your test result to studentmed@yale.edu so that your testing requirement can be paused.
Write to your head of college's office and your operations manager to discuss arrangements for retrieving your belongings.
Yes, in order to spread out the student arrivals just before in-person classes are scheduled to begin, you may as of January 14, 2022, arrive on February 5th and 6th. If you make a reservation for one of those days, please remember that arrival test results may be delayed. This option will make the most sense for students who are in a post-infection testing pause and those who do not have Monday classes.
If you are in the United States, you can find a test site near you by going to the US Department of Health & Human Services website. COVID testing is also widely available in other countries.
If you cannot take a pre-arrival test, you will need to take two arrival tests, with at least 24 hours in between; your phase one quarantine continues until both tests have come back negative.
If you test positive within 10 days of your planned return, call the Campus COVID-19 Resource Line at (203) 432-6604 for instructions. You will not be able to come to campus until you finish your isolation. At that point, you will not need to take an arrival test, so you will not have a phase one quarantine; do follow all other public health guidelines.
If you tested positive 11-90 days before your planned return, you may come to campus as planned. Email your test result to studentmed@yale.edu so that your testing requirement can be paused, and watch for a call from the care team. You will not need to take pre-arrival or arrival tests, and you will not have a phase one quarantine; do follow all other public health guidelines.
Move-in begins 9:00 a.m. on January 14. Now that the January 10 deadline to make an arrival appointment has passed, some dates are no longer available; public health conditions limit the number of students who can move in each day. Make your appointment now so that you are more likely to secure your first choice of move in date.
Keep in mind that until January 21, students will be preparing for or taking make-up final examinations. To support them, the residential colleges will be observing a quiet period: public spaces like butteries and gyms will not be open, social gatherings will not be permitted, and daily quiet hours will apply. If you will be arriving before January 22, please be respectful of your classmates focusing on their exams.
In order to spread out the student arrivals just before in-person classes are scheduled to begin, you may now arrive on February 5th and 6th. If you make a reservation for one of those days, please remember that arrival test results may be delayed. This option will make the most sense for students who are in a post-infection testing pause and those who do not have Monday classes.
Please submit your negative pre-arrival test results before you return to campus.
If you test positive:
- Call the Campus COVID-19 Resource Line at (203) 432-6604 for instructions.
- Do not come to campus until after you complete your isolation.
If you have tested positive for COVID-19 within the past 90 days outside of the Yale Health system, please email your test result to studentmed@yale.edu so that your testing requirement can be paused.
Stiles and Morse dining halls will open for all undergraduate meal plan holders on Friday, January 14th, serving hot breakfast, lunch, and dinner. On Sunday January 16th, Silliman, Branford, and Saybrook will also open starting with brunch. On Monday January 17th, MLK Day, all five open dining halls will open with their weekend schedule. Stiles and Morse will serve breakfast, brunch, and dinner, while Silliman, Branford, and Saybrook will be open for brunch and dinner. You can view the full schedule here.
Yes. A two-phase quarantine will be in place when you arrive:
Phase one, your individual in-room quarantine, starts when you arrive and ends when you receive the results of your arrival test.
- Stay in your suite or off-campus housing as much as possible until you receive your results. Leave only to pick up meals, to test, or for other medical purposes.
- Wear your mask, even in the company of your suitemates or household members.
- Avoid unnecessary contact with others.
Phase two, a campus-wide quarantine, is in effect for all undergraduates. It is currently expected to end on February 7, but may extend beyond that date if on- or off-campus COVID-19 rates are high.
- If your arrival test is negative, you may move around campus, but avoid local businesses, restaurants, and bars, including outdoor drinking or dining. (If your results are positive, follow the instructions you receive from the Yale Health care team.)
- Feel free to order curbside pickup, or take walks or runs off campus.
- Follow these guidelines whether you live on campus or off.
Fees, waivers, and rebates
If you are on the Yale Health Hospitalization/Specialty Care coverage, follow the instructions on the Yale Health website to be reimbursed for up to one covid test per week when you are away from campus.
If you waived the Hospitalization/Specialty Care coverage, follow the process of your own health insurance.
You can also take an over-the-counter rapid antigen test, preferably within 24 hours of travel.
Yes. As a special accommodation for the spring 2022, you may relinquish housing until February 8, 2022, without incurring the usual relinquishment fee, either for a leave of absence, an option available to any student in academic good standing, or to move off campus, an option available only to juniors and seniors.
A per diem rate starting January 24, 2022, applies until the date on which you relinquish your housing, whether or not you are here on campus. Once you relinquish housing, you have 48 hours to vacate your room and remove your belongings.
No. Students may return to campus as planned.
No. Students may return to campus as planned.
Vaccination and testing
If you are eligible for a booster, you need to get one before you return to campus, and submit your booster documentation. If you are not yet eligible for a booster, you must get one within seven days of becoming eligible and submit your documentation then.
Remember to fulfill your flu shot requirement before coming to campus. If you did not receive your flu shot through Yale Health, upload your documents.
Test as soon as you return to campus, ideally on the day you arrive. Make that appointment now, as demand for testing is high. If you are already in New Haven, start testing now. If you need to change your testing appointment, please make sure to cancel your first one to make that time available for someone else.
After your arrival test, resume your usual Monday-Thursday or Tuesday-Friday testing pattern, which you can view in the Yale Hub. This may mean you test two days in a row; that is okay. You can make these appointments now as well.
Schedule your arrival and routine testing appointments using the following link:
You may get either a rapid test within 24 hours of travel or a PCR test within 72 hours. Please wait until you get your results before you travel. You do not need to submit your test results, but if you test positive:
- Call the Campus COVID-19 Resource Line at (203) 432-6604 for instructions.
- Do not come to campus until after you complete your isolation.
If you have tested positive for COVID-19 within the past 90 days outside of the Yale Health system, it is important to let the Yale Health team know. Email your test result to studentmed@yale.edu so that your testing requirement can be paused.
If you are in the United States, you can find a test site near you by going to the US Department of Health & Human Services website. COVID testing is also widely available in other countries.
If you cannot take a pre-arrival test, you will need to take two arrival tests, with at least 24 hours in between; your phase one quarantine continues until both tests have come back negative.
For questions about the booster requirement, please see this question-and-answer form.
If you test positive within 10 days of your planned return, call the Campus COVID-19 Resource Line at (203) 432-6604 for instructions. You will not be able to come to campus until you finish your isolation. At that point, you will not need to take an arrival test, so you will not have a phase one quarantine; do follow all other public health guidelines.
If you tested positive 11-90 days before your planned return, you may come to campus as planned. Email your test result to studentmed@yale.edu so that your testing requirement can be paused, and watch for a call from the care team. You will not need to take pre-arrival or arrival tests, and you will not have a phase one quarantine; do follow all other public health guidelines.
Information about COVID-19 vaccinations is available on the Yale Health page, COVID-19 Vaccine FAQ for Yale Students, and additional information about COVID-19 vaccination information for international students is available on the Yale Health page, COVID-19 Vaccination FAQ for International Students and Scholars.
Please submit your negative pre-arrival test results before you return to campus.
If you test positive:
- Call the Campus COVID-19 Resource Line at (203) 432-6604 for instructions.
- Do not come to campus until after you complete your isolation.
If you have tested positive for COVID-19 within the past 90 days outside of the Yale Health system, please email your test result to studentmed@yale.edu so that your testing requirement can be paused.
Activities & Facilities
Only if the job can be done remotely. Students on leave fall under the visitors policy, which prohibits access to campus except in very narrow circumstances. Students on leave cannot work at in-person student jobs.
Selected spaces, with staff oversight, are open now at Payne Whitney Gym. Additional spaces at PWG are scheduled to open on February 7.
College gyms are closed until further notice. Undergraduates may run and walk around campus and in New Haven.
In support of students preparing for and taking make up exams, and preparing for and beginning the semester, students may access classrooms by request. Study groups of up to 4 students are permitted with masking and distancing. Students who wish to use a classroom for study or for a make-up exam between Jan 14 and Feb 6 should submit a request to the University Registrar's Office via 25Live.
Yes. This training will take place later in the semester, as public health conditions allow.
Yes, if you are back on campus you may work in person. If your supervisor prefers you to work remotely, you may do that instead, either from campus or from elsewhere.
College butteries, theaters, and exercise spaces (e.g. gyms, basketball courts, dance studios) are closed until further notice. Music practice rooms, recording studios, and student kitchens are open for solo use only. Other residential colleges spaces may be open for solo use and/or for multiple users (masked and distanced).
Academics
Yes. You can find the spring 2022 Yale College COVID policy for performing arts on the undergraduate production website.
Write to your head of college's office and your operations manager to discuss arrangements for retrieving your belongings.
February 8, 2022. As a special accommodation for the spring 2022, the deadline has been moved back a week.
Furthermore, leaves in 2021-2022 will not count toward the usual two-term limit on leaves.
You can make the request for a leave of absence in the Student Information Systems (SIS).
Yale faculty-led band, philharmonic, symphony, and other music-making rehearsals (e.g.: Yale faculty-led ensembles including Yale Symphony Orchestra, Yale Bands, and Yale Glee Club) may resume beginning February 7 after participants have received two negative COVID tests in accordance with the return to campus policy. These activities must take place according to all previously identified health and safety measures.
In-person, individual music lessons through the School of Music may resume beginning January 25 after student participants have received two negative COVID tests in accordance with the return to campus policy. These lessons must take place according to all previously identified health and safety measures.
Small practice rooms in the residential colleges will be open to undergraduates for solo practice starting January 14 using all previously established safety parameters.
Small practice rooms in the Adams Center will be open to designated undergraduates for solo practice starting January 25 using all previously established safety parameters.
Isolating In Place
You can help keep staff living and working in your college and their families safe and healthy by masking indoors, obeying any restrictions imposed by staff as they work, and following all of Yale’s health and safety guidelines.
In predicting the demand for isolation housing, the main variables are the number of students who test positive when they arrive on campus, the number of other students they infect before they begin their isolation, and the number of infections acquired in the surrounding community. All of these numbers can be significantly reduced by comprehensive pre-arrival testing and conscientious phase one and phase two arrival quarantines. It will also help if students’ return dates are spread out; if you can arrive on a weekday, please do so. If everyone does their part, it may not be necessary for anyone to isolate in place.
If a student is isolating in place, they will have a sign to put on their entryway door. Only the residents of that suite should enter.
If you get a positive result in MyChart, begin by immediately putting on a mask if you are around other people and going back to your room to isolate. The Yale Health Care Management team will call you as soon as they can; make sure you answer your phone. They will provide information, answer your questions, and assign your isolation location; they will follow up with detailed information over email.
The care team usually reaches undergraduates very quickly, but it may take longer if a large number of positive results come in at once. Please stay in your room while you wait for them to call. If you are missing a meal, you can have a friend bring you something from the dining hall or elsewhere; if necessary, you can go out to receive a curbside meal delivery. You can always call the Campus COVID Resource Line (203-432-6604) if you have urgent questions.
Yes. Despite earlier worries about contaminated surfaces and toilet flushing, current research indicates that COVID-19 is spread through respiratory aerosolization. Communal bathrooms are not considered sites at high risk for transmission of COVID. There are no reports in the literature of outbreaks associated with use of common bathrooms; outbreaks and clusters at Yale that have been investigated never implicated bathrooms as a source of exposure to the virus. Bathroom ventilation systems in the communal bathrooms are constantly exhausting these locations and are monitored remotely by Yale Facilities to ensure operability.
Yale’s Environmental Health and Safety site offers additional guidance on reducing the risk (PDF) of all kinds of infections in shared bathrooms.
You do want to avoid being in a communal bathroom while an isolated student is inside and unmasked, such as when they are showering or brushing their teeth. Students who are isolating in place will be given signs to put on the door of the bathroom when they are inside, so that you will know to avoid the space at that time. (If more than one student is isolating in place, it is okay for them to share the bathroom.)
During the isolation in place period, if it occurs, the custodial staff will provide additional cleaning and block off bathrooms that they are servicing, so that they are not directly exposed to any students. Please be respectful of those limits and of the safety of our staff.
Currently, students living on campus who test positive relocate to isolation housing and wait until they receive negative test results before they return to their originally assigned housing. Isolation housing has also been offered to off-campus undergraduates whenever space has permitted. For the past three semesters, demand has never exceeded capacity. Now, though, the national and international surge in COVID-19 cases makes it possible that positivity rates will outstrip the stand-alone isolation housing capacity, especially during the period when students return to campus after their winter break travel. To make this less likely, off-campus students will not be offered isolation housing during the opening weeks of the semester. If isolation housing nonetheless fills too quickly, some on-campus students will need to be assigned to remain in their regular rooms.
Whether your suitemate is isolating in place or moves to isolation housing, you are automatically considered a close contact, and need to follow those instructions; those vary depending on your booster status, but always include wearing a mask whenever you are around other people and testing repeatedly over the next few days.
In addition, if your suitemate is isolating in place, keep your bedroom door shut and wear a mask whenever you are in the common area. Your suitemate should remain in their own bedroom, with the door closed, except for brief transit through the common room to go to the bathroom and to take short excursions into the courtyard; occasionally, they may need to go out to receive curbside delivery of food or medicine. You should both be masked whenever you see them with the KN95 masks provided in your suitemate’s isolation kit.
During the isolation period, do not entertain guests in your suite. Your suitemate will receive an isolation kit with signage and extra masks to share with you. The Facilities staff will also drop off a HEPA filter and a microwave for your suitemate to use in their own room.
If you can, please help support your suitemate while they are in isolation. They may need a book from the library, a food pick-up, a loan of a mini-fridge, more tissues, or some other kindness. Keep your distance but do what you can.
You may have already been exposed by your suitemate before their positive result came back, but there is still a good chance that you will not become infected – omicron is very contagious, but within Yale’s highly vaccinated community the rates of household transmission have still been below 50%. Following the precautions outlined above will help increase the odds that you will not become positive. You may find it helpful to read about proper mask use (PDF). Even if you do test positive, the biggest risk factor for more severe covid is age. Most young adults—especially those who are vaccinated and boosted—will have only mild infections.
If this contingency plan needs to be put into effect, it will begin just with students in single bedrooms. In this plan, students in double bedrooms will continue to move into separate isolation housing. Should there be an outbreak of a scale that requires students in double bedrooms to isolate in place, the expectation is that the non-isolating roommate would be offered other temporary housing.
No. Due to privacy concerns, this information will be shared only with the people in proximity to an isolating student. Suitemates will be notified, and others will see signage if they are in the area.
For more information
The Campus COVID Resource Line is also available,
203-432-6604 or 866-924-9253
Available seven days a week, 8 a.m. - 8 p.m.

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