COVID-19

Woman wearing n95 mask and blue lab coat sitting at a desk and typing on a silver laptop computer

Case Reporting and Investigation

Benefits

If you have been exposed or tested positive for COVID-19, you may be eligible for certain benefits. 

Remote Work Options
In certain circumstances, employees who have been exposed or tested positive may be able to work or continue to work remote if their job allows. However, this is not a requirement. Prior to making an accommodation for continued work (e.g., work from home) the supervisor/manager, employee and the department HRBP/leave coordinator must discuss the options.

Leave Options
Employees who have been exposed or tested positive may be eligible for leave options which may include:
●    Emergency Paid Sick Leave (EPSL)
●    Use of your accrued sick or vacation time
●    Other Leave Options including Family Medical Leave (FML)
●    Workers’ Compensation

If you have been exposed or tested positive, please contact your Human Resources Business Partner to further discuss leave options and to ensure you are paid appropriately and in a timely manner. If you are instructed to isolate or quarantine, your supervisor will be made aware that you will be absent from work, unless approved to work remotely. Additional information regarding UCR COVID-19 Symptom Monitoring and Procedures is available here. 

COVID-19 Testing Options
If you suspect that you have been exposed to COVID-19 at work, you may obtain a free COVID-19 test. Employees should work with their supervisors to accommodate COVID-19 testing. In some cases, employees may request up to two hours of their regularly scheduled work hours to take a COVID-19 test (coded in TARS as COVID-19 Testing: CVDTST). Information about free off-campus testing options is available at gettested.ruhealth.org.

Note: Employees who have recovered from COVID-19 symptoms after testing positive for COVID-19 are advised not to retest for COVID-19 for a minimum of 90 days because they may continue to test positive for three month or more without being contagious to others per CDPH, Riverside County Department of Public Health, and CDC.

Workers’ Compensation  
If you suspect you have contracted COVID-19 as a result of your employment with the University, you may be entitled to worker’s compensation benefits. This may include hospital, surgical, and medical treatment, disability indemnity, and death benefits. For more information, please contact workerscomp@ucr.edu.

Reporting Exposures and Positive Tests

Who should report a confirmed positive case, exposure, or COVID-19 like symptoms? 
All UCR faculty, staff, and students are required to report.

How to report a confirmed positive case, exposure, or COVID-19 like symptoms? 
Please report this information by filling out the COVID Screening Check. If you were exposed to a person with COVID-19, please arrange for a COVID-19 test within day three to five after the last date of exposure. More information on testing can be found here. 

Have you been exposed?  

  • Use the COVID Screening Check to indicate that you may have been exposed.  
  • COVID-19 tests are offered at no cost if conducted at a UCR location. Exposure testing is required regardless of vaccination status and should occur day five or later after the last date of exposure.  
  • Regardless of your vaccination status, if you were exposed to a COVID-19 positive case and you are asymptomatic, you do not need to quarantine.
  • If your test is positive, you will need to isolate for at least 5 days after start of symptoms (or after date of first positive test if no symptoms). If unable to test, choosing not to test, or testing positive on Day 5 (or later), isolation can end after Day 10 if fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications. For students residing on campus, you will be provided with isolation housing. 
About Case Investigation
What is a case investigation?
  • Case investigation is the process of identifying who may have come into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Learn more about close contact or exposure here. A visual guide to the case investigation process at UCR can be found here.
What happens next if I test positive for COVID-19?

A case investigation will begin promptly by the UCR COVID-19 Management Team. The case investigator reviews the COVID Screening Check survey and if needed, reaches out to the individual who has tested positive for COVID-19 on campus to:

  • confirm or clarify details about the positive diagnosis
  • confirm location while on campus during the highly infectious period, which is defined as two days prior to the onset of symptoms (if symptomatic) or two days prior to the last positive test (if asymptomatic)
  • provide direction and support for isolation
  • gather information about recent close contacts and on campus social activities 

As a next step, UCR case investigators will reach out to on-campus individuals identified as "close contacts" to provide additional guidance in alignment with public health guidelines. This includes providing guidance on testing and quarantine instructions.
If you have not been contacted, it is very likely that you were not deemed a close contact by the case investigation team. If you still believe you were exposed or in close contact with a person with COVID-19, contact the COVID-19 Management Resource Center at 844-827-6827 for further assessment.
Case Investigation is only attempted for UCR-affiliated individuals, students, staff, faculty, and other individuals working or living on campus or UCR-operated sites. For all close contacts in Riverside County that are not affiliated with the university, the County of Riverside, Public Health Department will perform the contact tracing.
Case investigations are led by COVID-19 Management Team.

 
Privacy

The exposure notification process is timely, respectful, and private; the name of the employee or student who tested positive will not be disclosed. Close contacts are not informed of the identity of the person who tested positive, just that they were in contact with someone who tested positive in a certain location and timeframe.

Additionally, the name of the employee or student will not be disclosed to supervisors or others not a part of the Case Investigation Team.