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Dear Colleagues,
With effect from 17 January 2022 until further notice, a measure of the Ministry of Health orders us employees to regularly test for the SARS-CoV-2 virus at work. Testing is even more important now because it is no longer sufficient to produce a certificate of vaccination or recovery from Covid-19 at workplaces; the option of taking a PCR or antigen test with a healthcare service provider and produce the results at AMU remains available. A link to the current measure of the Rector of AMU and to the test booking system is provided below.
How many times a week and when should I test?
You should test on the first day you come to work in each week. You should take the next test no sooner than the third day after the first test, so, in fact, there are just two options: Monday and Thursday (or Friday), and Tuesday and Friday. Each Faculty and the Rectorate will have their own test dates covered by a healthcare provider, for which you register in the booking system. Please make sure to be punctual and come exactly for your selected time slot to prevent queues. If you cannot test on an offered date, an authorised employee will give you an antigen self-test upon your arrival to work.
What if I am not present at my workplace all week?
If you work in a home office mode or take a leave or a sick day during a week, you may need fewer than the required two tests. If you are outside your workplace for a full week, there is no need to test (this does not apply to business trips – for this purpose, a business trip equals AMU workplace). If you are at your workplace for one or two days after the first test when the results are still “valid” and then are absent until the end of the week, this one test suffices. In any other conceivable case, you will need two tests.
May I use a test result obtained elsewhere?
Yes. You can use a negative PCR test result that is up to 72 hours old or a negative antigen test result up to 24 hours old, in both cases supported by a certificate from the healthcare service provider or a digital EU COVID certificate. The test results are “valid” on the day when submitted and for the next two days, provided that they are not older than the above periods at the moment of submission. As such, they can replace one of the two tests required per week.
What do I do when I test positive at work?
If the test result comes from the relevant healthcare provider, the provider will issue you with an official request for a confirmation PCR test straight away and you will retreat for quarantine. If the result comes from an antigen self-test that you received from an authorised employee upon your arrival at school outside the booked testing dates, you should retreat for quarantine and contact your general practitioner. Do not forget to notify your supervisor and the secretary of your Faculty or the Bursar if you work at the Rectorate and/or in a worksite other than a Faculty.
What if I have another employer with which I test regularly?
You can produce a certificate issued by such other employer (this will confirm that you observe the duty to take the preventive tests with such employer, but it will not replace the actual test results), and as a result you do not have to test at AMU. In turn, if you need to prove to another employer that you have tested, AMU can issue such a certificate as well. Take a test and the person in charge at the Faculty or at the Rectorate will issue the certificate if needed.
What if I refuse to test and come to work anyway?
Under the Ministry of Health ordinance, AMU has to report you to the sanitary authority, you need to wear respiratory protection all day, you have to eat separately from others, and you may contact others at your workplace only to the minimum extent determined by your supervisor. Rather than do this, let us all rest regularly. Thank you!
Do other firms’ employees, students, applicants, and other course attendees have to test too?
The people who come to AMU will obviously include other people in addition to employees – we are a school. Other firms’ employees and self-employed operators have to test and produce test results to their respective contacts in school. The Ministry of Health does not order anything to this effect to students, applicants and other comers. However, AMU asks and encourages them all to test on a voluntary basis and respect the instructions of their respective Deans.
What is the difference between quarantine and isolation, and how many days to they last?
Both quarantine and isolation are tools intended to stop the spread of an infectious disease. The difference is that isolation applies to persons who are already infected. By contrast, quarantine serves to separate the persons who may or may not be infected and the infection has been neither proven nor ruled out. Infected people are isolated to stop further spreading of the disease. Both quarantine and isolation are subject to the same rules from 11 January 2022, as is the procedure for ending them. Both quarantine and isolation end on expiry of five days from the positive test result or contact with an infected person. A negative test result is not required, but if you test to a negative result earlier than after five days, you may end your quarantine or isolation earlier.
