Campus visitor saliva testing

As you know, the university’s Campus COVID-19 Public Health Requirements include guidelines for visitors on campus. Currently, visitors to university-owned buildings are limited to those conducting approved on-campus interactions as outlined in your area’s return to work plan.

Visitors are defined as family members of university students and employees, prospective students and their families, alumni, academic visitors, contractors, visiting athletic teams and staff, athletics officials, and vendors conducting business with the university, including making deliveries to the university. Visitors must wear face coverings, practice social distancing and maintain hand hygiene when on campus and not come to campus if they are feeling sick.

To further prevent the transmission of COVID-19, we are pleased to announce that frequent campus visitors are now eligible to participate in UIC’s free on-campus saliva testing and UIC Healthcheck/Daily Pass programs. A frequent visitor is defined as an individual who is required to be on campus at least once a week to conduct approved university business with employees in campus spaces other than the hospital and UI Health clinics.

There are two steps to this process:

• Your department should sponsor the individual as an external affiliate. This will allow them to obtain a UIC NetID, a UIN and an i-card, which will enable them to get a saliva test at one of UIC’s three testing locations. Testing is available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Student Center locations are also open on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Student Center West, 828 S. Wolcott Ave., Thompson Room
  • Student Center East, 750 S Halsted St., Illinois Room
  • Dorin Forum, 725 W. Roosevelt Road
• The department should then email dath@uic.edu to request the external affiliate’s inclusion in the UIC Healthcheck/Daily Pass program and identify the supervisor contact information for contact tracing purposes.

Once these steps are completed, your department’s visitors should record their health status in UIC Healthcheck prior to coming to campus just as employees and students do. They should also be directed to obtain their first saliva test on their next visit to UIC. After that, they should test every two weeks or whenever on campus. Prior to coming to campus, the individual should note their color-coded saliva testing status and if a red badge is displayed in their Daily Pass, they should plan to obtain a saliva test while on campus. If a positive test is reported, they will be contacted by UIC contact tracing.  Non-compliance reports will be sent to the sponsoring unit representative.

These expanded programs will enhance our continued efforts to keep both the UIC community and its visitors safe and healthy.