Quarantine and Isolation FAQs

Students who are symptomatic and/or test positive for COVID go into isolation.  Students who are exposed to another student who is symptomatic or positive go into quarantine.

The decision to quarantine or isolate is a medical decision, and students are directed to schedule a virtual visit immediately upon entering quarantine or isolation. During the virtual visit, the quarantine or isolation timeline will be discussed with the medical provider.

The CDC recommendation that Furman follows for quarantine: Students who meet the criteria for an exposure and who remain symptom free are required to quarantine for a minimum of 7 days from the time of most recent exposure, if they are able to produce a negative COVID test sampled between day 5 and 7 post-exposure. If no such test is produced, the minimum quarantine period will be 10 days.

The CDC recommendation that Furman follows for isolation: Students in isolation are required to have no contact with other individuals for a period of 10 days from the time of symptom onset or the positive test sample was acquired (e.g., surveillance monitoring), assuming the individual has no fever (< 100.4˚F) without taking fever-reducing medications for a minimum of the most recent 24-hour period, and with improving symptoms. Final decision for release from isolation will be determined by the Earle Student Health Center.

All students, regardless of vaccination status, must have a plan to quarantine or isolate off campus.

When we announced in June that we would require students to get the COVID vaccine, we were so hopeful that any pandemic mitigation measures for the fall semester would be in our rearview mirror. And that vaccinated students would be “in the clear” (for the most part). So, we only set aside a few spaces in campus housing for isolation, knowing there would be some international students as well as domestic students from a long distance who will get COVID.

The reason we only have a fraction of the beds we had last year is because we no longer have a remote option for students, so students are all back on campus this fall occupying beds. The reality is we have limited space and are not equipped to isolate the same number of students that we could accommodate last year. The good news is that fully vaccinated students will not be required to quarantine, unless symptomatic, so this should reduce significantly our need for extra beds. Even so, we need each student and their family to develop a plan, and hopefully never have to use it. And we will manage each student who tests positive for COVID on a case-by-case basis to determine the best course of action for isolation at that time.

Your instructors will be notified that you are unable to attend class until further notice. How much information you share with your professor about your situation is up to you.

Furman will not guarantee remote access to academic courses and/or any other offerings during quarantine or isolation. Students must communicate with their individual instructors to develop a plan to make up any missed academic work.

Submit your LiveSafe health survey and go to MyChart and schedule a virtual visit with the Earle Student Health Center. If you cannot make a same day appointment in MyChart, please call the ESHC instead at 864.522.2000 after 8 a.m. to make a same day appointment.

Students assigned to quarantine or isolation may not return to campus until notified of permission by Furman’s medical provider.

Students in violation of quarantine or isolation protocols will be charged with Failure to Comply, Disorderly Conduct and/or Endangerment.

Furman uses a local medical provider using FDA-certified nasal and saliva PCR testing in our determinations. PCR is generally recognized as the most sensitive, specific, and accurate format for COVID-19 testing, recommended by CDC, SC DHEC and many other public health entities as the preferred test for asymptomatic testing in particular. Indeed, one of the reasons for the high accuracy associated with PCR testing is that it relies on directly multiplying and measuring SARS-CoV-2 viral DNA present in the sample, rather than protein fragments that may be associated with the virus (e.g. “rapid antigen” testing). Thus, true “false positives” are extraordinarily rare with PCR testing versus other testing modalities.

Because viral loads vary over the course of the disease, it is quite possible to test positive on one day, and as viral load begins to diminish, obtain a follow up test where the test results may be labelled as “SARS-CoV-2 not detected”, which is even more likely using the less sensitive rapid testing methods.  This does not, however, imply the initial test was in error, or result in a positive case being released from isolation.  The greater the time that passes from the initial sampling resulting in a positive test until the second test is sampled, the greater the chance the two tests may disagree. Different formats of PCR instrumentation, types of sampling methods, and differences in provider laboratories all contribute to the sensitivity for the test, including how many replication cycles are used to assign a positive case. For example, Furman’s provider automatically runs a duplicate test taken from the original sample for every positive test reported before the data are released to the student.

Invalidating a positive test is highly unusual and requires (1) clear clinical evidence to suspect an error and (2) multiple PCR tests with no viral load detected, sampled within 48 hours of the initial test. In such a rare circumstance, early release is at the discretion of the clinicians at the Earle Student Health Center.