Procedures when staff and students are infected with COVID-19

Inform your manager or course coordinator

All students and staff should contact their nearest manager/head of department or course coordinator if they have confirmed COVID-19.

Contact tracing

In the Västerbotten County, the Department of Communicable Disease Control and Prevention at Region Västerbotten is responsible for carrying out contact tracing. This means that a person who has tested positive for COVID-19 will be contacted by a contact tracer from Region Västerbotten for information and guidelines. Region Västerbotten could ask a manager or course coordinator at the university to contact students or staff who may have come in close contact with the infected person.

Region Västerbotten has produced a template text that can be used to inform people who have been in close contact with an infected person. The template text can be found further down.

Information to close contacts

Close contact is contact within a 2-metre vicinity for more than 15 minutes accumulated during 24 hours and within 48 hours prior to symptoms starting until symptoms have cleared.

Everyone who has been in close contact with the infected person must always be contacted. Region Västerbotten is responsible for contact tracing, but can ask the university for help. In that case, please follow the instructions in the checklist and consider how to process personal data.

If the infected person has shared a room with or worked closely with someone else during the period of transmission, this person is recommended to work or study from home, if possible, and avoid contact with others for the next 7 days. This applies for close contact according to the definition above. And these measures are particularly important if the infected person has met others in a small room.

Other people who have been in close contact with the infected person must follow the guidelines and advice issued by the Department of Communicable Disease Control and Prevention. People who have had such contact are to keep distance from others, meet as few people as possible, and be attentive to any potential symptoms.

Information to others in the organisation

People who have not been in close contact with the infected person should, in general, not be informed. However, at times worry can arise and rumours may spread. In such cases, it may be necessary to inform a greater group about the case of COVID-19 found, for instance that the person has not been present at the workplace or in teaching during his or her infectious phase, alternatively that everyone who has been in close contact with the infected person has already been informed. The infected person must consent to such information being shared, please read more under the headline Processing personal data. When deemed necessary, the head of department or other manager informs staff. Course coordinators inform their respective students.

Information to the Crisis Management Team

The Crisis Management Team must be informed of each individual case of COVID-19 that has been reported to the university. This responsibility lies with the head of department or equivalent manager. The person reporting is also responsible for making secure notes of the cases in order to be able to identify what cases have been reported. No personal data must be included in the reports to the Crisis Management Team. The Crisis Management Team is responsible for informing the University Management and also compiles regular statistics. Please contact the Crisis Management Team on corona@umu.se.

Processing personal data

If you have received information that a student or member of staff has been infected with COVID-19, this information must be handled carefully and with utmost respect for the individual’s personal integrity – this is the same as in all cases of disease.

Confidentiality applies regarding information about a student or staff who has been infected with COVID-19. The information may not be spread to others by the employer/the university without explicit, preferably written, consent from the individual concerned. Hence, you must discuss with the individual what information is relevant and can be shared with colleagues or fellow students, and who should be communicating the information.

Decide if the infected person wishes to make his or her name known or be anonymous in potential information to other parties. Even if the person consents to being named, information should still preferably be anonymous.

When reporting cases to the Crisis Management Team, no personal data may be shared.

Clusters of COVID-19

Clusters of COVID-19, in this sense, refer to a number of students or staff in the same group being infected with COVID-19. The medical region has not established a clear number for how many infected people defines a cluster, instead an individual assessment is made each time.

Each person must still be processed individually according to the routines.

Reporting serious incident and documenting exposure to COVID-19

If a member of staff or a student at Umeå University has been exposed to COVID-19 in the line of their work or studies, the head of department or equivalent manager is responsible for reporting the incident to the Swedish Work Environment Authority without delay. This also applies retroactively and for cases that the manager is informed about at a later date.

The manager is also responsible for documenting and taking measures to prevent further incidents.

Learn more on the staff web:

Reporting serious incident and documenting exposure to COVID-19

Equivalent informationen in Swedish:

Läs mer om anmälan av allvarligt tillbud

Checklist for when a student has confirmed COVID-19

When a student has been tested and has confirmed COVID-19, the following is to take place:

1. The infected student informs his or her course coordinator about the infection.
2. The course coordinator informs the relevant head of department who in turn informs the Crisis Management Team on corona@umu.se. PLEASE NOTE! Do not enter name or any other personal details of the infected person in the email.
3. Region Västerbotten is responsible for contact tracing, but can ask the university for help. In the case that the university is asked to help in contacting close contacts, the teacher and the infected student should discuss the following
   1. What people at the university, staff and students, has the infected person been in close contact with?
      Close contact is contact within a 2-metre vicinity for more than 15 minutes accumulated during 24 hours and within 48 hours prior to symptoms starting until symptoms have cleared. Everyone who has been in such close contact with the infected person must always be contacted.
   2. Who will inform close contacts?
      Information to those concerned is dispersed either by the infected person or the university. In case the university is informing close contacts, the template text produced by Region Västerbotten is to be used. It can be found further down on this page. The head of department informs staff, and course coordinators inform their respective students.
   3. Can others be informed?
      In general, only people who need to be informed of the case of infection should be contacted, but in certain cases information to a wider group may be necessary. Come to an agreement with the infected person if he or she consents to information being shared to a wider group, and in that case, if the person wishes to be named or remain anonymous.
4. Adapt teaching and examination to alternative methods if possible for a defined period.
5. Follow up on the student to see how he or she is doing. The student may return to on-campus studies or equivalent no sooner than 7 days after falling ill and at least 2 days after symptoms have cleared.
6. Assess if a report of a serious incident is necessary, read the section "Reporting serious incident and documenting exposure to COVID-19" above. Please note! A person who has been doubly vaccinated at least two weeks prior to the incident does not need to be included in the incident report.

If the contact tracer or equivalent healthcare authority provides instructions that contradict the information provided by the university, please adhere to those instructions instead.

Checklist for when a member of staff has confirmed COVID-19

When a member of staff has been tested and has confirmed COVID-19, the following is to take place:

1. The infected member of staff informs his or her manager/head of department about the infection.
2. The manager informs the relevant head of department/head of office who in turn informs the Crisis Management Team on corona@umu.se. PLEASE NOTE! Do not enter name or any other personal details of the infected person in the email.
3. Region Västerbotten is responsible for contact tracing, but can ask the university for help. In the case that the university is asked to help in contacting close contacts, the manager and infected member of staff should discuss the following
   1. What people at the university, staff and students, has the infected person been in close contact with?
      Close contact is contact within a 2-metre vicinity for more than 15 minutes accumulated during 24 hours and within 48 hours prior to symptoms starting until symptoms have cleared. Everyone who has been in such close contact with the infected person must always be contacted.
   2. Who will inform close contacts?
      Information to those concerned is dispersed either by the infected person or the university. In case the university is informing close contacts, the template text produced by Region Västerbotten is to be used. It can be found further down on this page. The manager/head of department informs staff, and course coordinators inform their respective students.
   3. Can others be informed?
      In general, only people who need to be informed of the case of infection should be contacted, but in certain cases information to a wider group may be necessary. Come to an agreement with the infected person if he or she consents to information being shared to a wider group, and in that case, if the person wishes to be named or remain anonymous.
4. The manager follows up on the member of staff to see how he or she is doing. The member of staff may return to the workplace no sooner than 7 days after falling ill and at least 2 days after symptoms have cleared.
5. Assess if a report of a serious incident is necessary, read the section "Reporting serious incident and documenting exposure to COVID-19" above. Please note! A person who has been doubly vaccinated at least two weeks prior to the incident does not need to be included in the incident report.

If the contact tracer or equivalent healthcare authority provides instructions that contradict the information provided by the university, please adhere to those instructions instead.

Template text for information to close contacts

Adapt the following text according to the situation.

English text

I have been informed that a person with confirmed COVID-19 has been at [X] during [contagious period, date, time interval]. I must therefore inform everyone who were there at the same time that you may have been exposed to risk of infection. Please be observant of any potential symptoms for 14 days, and particularly during the first 7 days after the time in question. You may continue to go to work/school as usual as long as you have no symptoms – but you should avoid meeting other people to the extent possible. Be careful to keep physical distance between yourself and others. If symptoms of disease should arise, you must isolate yourself. If the symptoms remain after 24 hours or if they worsen, all individuals over the age of 6 must get tested. Testing can take place through self-sampling at Region Västerbotten if you have a Swedish personal identity number. If you have no Swedish personal identity number, please contact a healthcare centre to get tested. Testing is free of charge. Remain in isolation until your test results have come. More information can be found on 1177.se.

Swedish text

Jag har fått information om att en person med covid-19 varit på [X] under [smittsam period, datum, ev. tidsintervall]. Jag vill därför informera dig som varit där samtidigt om att du kan ha utsatts för en smittrisk. Var observant på eventuella symptom i 14 dagar efter smittotillfället. Du kan arbeta/gå i skola som vanligt så länge du inte har några symptom, men du bör i övrigt träffa så få personer som möjligt. Var noggrann med att hålla avstånd till andra. Om symptom tillkommer ska du isolera dig. Kvarstår symptomen efter 24 timmar eller blir förvärrade ska du provta dig, det gäller alla personer över 6 år. Provtagning kan ske genom egenprovtagning eller genom att ta kontakt med din hälsocentral. Du ska fortsätta hålla dig isolerad tills provsvar kommit. Mer information finns på 1177.se.

Checklist and template as PDF

Download the checklist and template as PDF

English: Checklist for when a student or staff has confirmed COVID-19.pdf (281 kB)

Swedish: Checklista för hantering av smittfall hos medarbetare eller studenter.pdf (363 kB)