Yasmine Halmane, Photo Editor

For students in isolation housing, the lines of COVID-19 policy communication have become tangled.

Last week, Yale College saw a spike in COVID-19 cases that University administrators described as “unprecedented,” with new undergraduate cases peaking at 87 on Feb. 15. Although cases have returned to lower levels in recent days — undergraduate cases did not exceed 25 on Feb. 19 or Feb. 20 — the uptick has sent an influx of students to isolation, either in designated housing or their single bedrooms. At the same time, the University has shifted its protocols to no longer contact trace in most cases.

For some students who tested positive, the transition to isolation housing has not been seamless. Six students who recently tested positive for COVID-19 said that the communication they received from the University during their stay in isolation came delayed or raised additional questions. 

“The actual experience of [isolation] is a little bit rough because you have no information about what to expect going in,” Bo Sergeant ’25, who isolated in Arnold Hall, told the News. “It just felt quite chaotic in the first couple of days being there.” 

The Campus COVID-19 Resource Line, or CCRL, is available to all members of the Yale community from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week. Composed of a team of registered nurses, the CCRL can provide clinical assessment to members of the Yale community over the phone, as well as schedule COVID-19 vaccines and tests and escalate clinical issues to Yale Health, Nanci Fortgang, the chief clinical operations officer of Yale Health, told the News. The CCRL is also available for students who have tested positive and have questions about isolation procedures. The CCRL, however, does not call students to inform them that they have tested positive — that role falls to the Yale Health Resulting Team, which is also composed of registered nurses.  

Fortgang noted that the Resulting Team is also in charge of providing guidance about isolation. She added that the Contract Tracing Team, which is separate from the other two resource teams and staffed by the School of Public Health, provides quarantine guidance to those close contacts of those who tested positive.

But on Feb. 14, the University updated its online protocols without comment — now, individuals infected with COVID-19 are required to notify their household members and those they were in contact with themselves. Fortgang made her comment about contact tracing after the policy was changed. 

Students are initially contacted by the Resulting Team when they test positive for COVID-19. Afterwards, three students told the News that they received a second call informing them whether or not they would be required to isolate in place or move to isolation housing. An additional call from the Contact Tracing Team provides quarantine guidance and asks students to list their close contacts. 

But some students told the News that the most helpful information they received about isolation policies came from outside the typical channels. 

Michael Gary ’24 and his roommate tested positive at the same time. Hoping to find out if he could isolate in their shared room, he called back the number that originally called him with isolation housing instructions, which he said connected him with isolation housing staff. In the days that followed, it was not the CCRL but the isolation housing number that became the resource he most relied on for information about isolation policy. 

“I’ve called them like six times,” Gary said. “I’ve needed to call them so frequently that I just keep pressing that number. I have no idea where you find that number, but it’s the original and the people are so nice. I don’t know who they are, but they’re looking out for me.” 

After five days in isolation, students isolating on campus have the option to test out of isolation housing by taking rapid COVID-19 tests, monitored on daily Microsoft Teams calls. For Krupa Hegde ’25, information provided by the monitor on these calls sometimes contradicted information she was receiving in emails from the University. 

“The person who was testing us gave us a set of instructions that were different from the email I got after I tested negative,” Hegde said. “They had a different protocol from the email we got subsequently.” 

Although the discrepancy in information only pertained to the timing of Hegde’s departure from isolation after testing negative, it meant that she had to spend more time figuring out which was accurate before she could leave. 

Sergeant told the News that his primary source of information during his time in isolation housing was simply word of mouth from other students. 

“It wasn’t clear whether if you tested on day five, you could just go out on day five,” Sergeant said. “The exit process was unclear. Honestly, the only reason I knew about the testing was because I had friends who had gone through it before.” 

For some students, communication from the University, or a lack thereof, posed additional challenges during their time in isolation. 

Both Theo Haaks ’24 and Nanki Chugh ’22 told the News that there was a delay in between when they received their positive test results and went into isolation and when they received a call from the Contact Tracing Team. For Chugh, this delay lasted four hours, but for Haaks, it was two days. 

“It seemed strange that the contacting team did not reach out to me until two days after I had tested positive,” Haaks said. “That being said, I’m sure the recent outbreak has put significant strain on the University’s COVID response system, so I understand the delayed response.” 

For three students, confusion arose regarding their rooming situations, either in isolation housing or their residential colleges. 

“Sometimes [the calls] were very confusing,” Jeffrey Zhou ’25 said. “They told me that when I entered I would have a roommate, when I did not. Then one day later a roommate appeared and I was not informed of this change. I was not ready for a roommate at all.”

Upon testing positive, Flora Ranis ’24 was told in a phone call from Yale Health that she would be able to isolate in place because her roommate had also recently contracted COVID-19. 

“However, almost immediately after I hung up, I received an email telling me to pack my stuff and move to McClellan,” Ranis said. “That worried me a little, especially because the email told me to move right away, and I had just been told to stay where I was. There was definitely a lack of communication regarding where many students would be staying, but I called back and confirmed that I could stay in my room.”

Haaks and his roommate faced similar issues. After Haaks had moved into isolation housing, his roommate tested positive for the virus and he was instructed to isolate in place in their shared room. 

“The issue arose when I was released from isolation housing, but my roommate in Vanderbilt, who still had an active COVID case, was still isolating in our room,” Haaks said. “Despite his ongoing infection and my recent recovery from one, I was instructed to join my roommate in our double. I felt uncomfortable with that arrangement and opted to sleep elsewhere.” 

The University has faltered previously in its ability to communicate isolation policies — on Feb. 10, the day after the isolate-in-place policy went into effect, students reported being instructed by the University to remain in their double rooms after testing positive for COVID-19. 

But when asked about the reason that discrepancies might arise in communications to COVID-positive students, Fortgang maintained that instructions from all of the University’s phone communication channels were up-to-date. 

 “CCRL and resulting teams adhere strictly to university policy,” Fortgang wrote in an email to the News. 

Current University policy prescribes that on-campus students who test positive for COVID-19 isolate for a minimum of five days, either in their single bedrooms or isolation housing in Arnold or McClellan Halls. If students are not symptomatic after five days of isolation, daily proctored rapid testing begins until students test negative, or until 10 days of isolation housing are completed. 

Students released after fewer than 10 days of isolation are instructed to mask at all times, including while in their suites, take their meals to-go from the dining hall and return to isolation housing overnight if they have roommates in residential housing. 

After 10 days, since their entry to isolation housing has passed, students may resume usual public health guidelines.