Samford University Athletics

Samford University COVID19 Best Practices for 2021-2022
This document was revised on 10/25/2021 to meet Samford University and NCAA COVID19 Guidelines.
 
Prior to arrival or ASAP for those already on campus

• Baseline “re-entry” Testing - removed
• Error messages when registering a kit
  • You need to use your original email you used when registering this past spring. If you have forgotten your email, please contact your athletic trainer for your team. Angeline Jackson can locate the original email for you.
• Vaccination Status
  • Must be submitted to the university via your Samford Portal or this link: https://samford.edu/go/vaccinationresponse
  • There are 4 possible responses:
    • You are vaccinated and will share a copy of your vaccination card
    • You are vaccinated and prefer not to share a copy of your vaccination card
    • You are not vaccinated
    • You prefer not to answer
  • The last 3 will keep you in the sentinel testing pool for the university and subject to quarantine due to contact tracing
  • You can also enter your current status and update it later if your status changes 
• Assumption of Risk form - Removed
• Previous positive cases
  • Previous students and staff members who are unvaccinated and have tested positive for COVID19 during the summer or during the return to campus test you must upload your positive test results so the University can correctly calculate your 90-day window.
  • Your 90-day window from a positive case will temporarily remove you from sentinel testing.

 
While on campus
 
COVID19 Symptoms

• Symptoms to monitor with rapid antigen testing in house:
  • Cough, Headache, Sore Throat, Congestion or Runny Nose
• Symptoms for immediate referral for evaluation and testing:
  • Fever, Chills, Shortness of Breath, Difficulty Breathing, Fatigue, Muscle or Body Aches, New loss of taste or smell, nausea, Vomiting, and Diarrhea
• We will monitor symptoms daily via Teamworks app of all unvaccinated student-athletes.

 
Masking

• Masking is strongly recommended in all other indoor public spaces. We continue to encourage use of face masks whenever you cannot maintain reasonable physical distance from others. 

Sentinel “surveillance” Testing

• The current plan for Samford University will be to perform Sentinel Testing of unvaccinated individuals and those who do not provide proof of vaccination.
• Will be performing 356 tests per week.
• Med Help, who is taking over the Student Health Center, will be helping to perform these PCR tests.
• This testing does not replace NCAA testing guidelines, but in conjunction with when they are released.
• This test is mandatory to sign up for when you are selected and be punctual for the time you select, or you are subject to holds and fines on your account. You will also not be allowed to go to class or athletic related activities.

 
Focus Testing

• Samford University has the capability to perform testing of departments or groups on campus that they see an uptick of positive cases in.
• These can be the Binax Now Rapid Antigen tests and be utilized by those who have been trained in scenarios where there is any doubt.

• This will take the place of the Sustained Increased Transmission testing while out of season.

 
NCAA/SoCon Testing

• Non-Championship / Competition Season Testing
  • This is testing for the week of competition.
    • You do not have to test the week prior to competition week and you do not have to test during a BYE week either.
  • All unvaccinated Tier 1 individuals are required to perform 3 Rapid Antigen Tests a week.
    • These do not replace the University Testing Requirements
    • Exception: If you have tested positive within the past 90 days.
  • Currently, the team’s athletic trainer is responsible for performing the testing until the university can find other accommodations.
• Sustained Increased Transmission Testing
  • If sustained increased transmission on a team, test all symptomatic individuals or individuals with close contacts, or apply a similar risk mitigation strategy.
    • Sustained increased transmission is likely occurring if a team is seeing positive cases and/or symptomatic individuals with 25% or more of their tier 1 team members.
  • This coincides with Focus Testing while in season.
• There are no current testing procedures for play-offs or NCAA Championships. Those will be discussed and presented later this Fall.
• The 90-day window following a positive case when you are unvaccinated still gives you as a pass from the sentinel and athletic testing as long as you remain asymptomatic.
  • You will be treated as vaccinated during this window.

Contact Tracing

• While the University is operating under normal operations, from a contact tracing standpoint, individuals are still subject to contact tracing procedures.
• This means that there needs to be careful consideration for team meeting rooms, weight rooms, athletic training rooms, and others when scheduling all in person events.
  • This will ensure that we are able to continue operations without exposing others if a positive test result happens.
  • This is the responsibility of each coaching staff with conjunction of the strength staff and athletic trainer for each team to plan if your team vaccination numbers would negatively impact you via contact tracing in any and all settings since the university is operating under normal operations.
• When a person tests positive and contact tracing begins, the contact tracers will make note of the vaccinated individuals who have been contact traced in the Samford Portal. The contact tracers will focus on contact tracing of the unvaccinated. The vaccinated individuals will be notified of their exposure and communicated to watch for any COVID19 Symptoms that may form over the next 10 days and can continue normal operations as long as they remain symptom free.
  • They must also provide a negative test to the university between 3-5 days after exposure.
• Reminders:
  • Socially distanced is being masked if you are unvaccinated, staying outside of 6 feet proximity to others, and under 15 cumulative minutes of exposure within a 24-hour period.

 
Pete Hanna Weight Room

• Will be adopting the University protocols to operate under normal operations when scheduling.
• The Strength and Conditioning Coaches will create the schedule for all Olympic Teams so please send them your preferred times for this Fall if you have not done so.
• Each coaching staff should communicate with their strength and conditioning coach and athletic trainer if there needs to be any social distancing considered for their team.

 
Academic Enhancement Center

• Will be adopting the University protocols and operate under normal operations.
• Paige Mathis and her team will be working to plan hours for this fall.
• This will be for tutoring, study hall, etc.

 
Isolation and Quarantine

• Anyone testing positive for COVID-19, regardless of vaccination status, is required to isolate for 10 days away from other persons. 
• Anyone displaying symptoms of COVID-19, regardless of vaccination status, is required to quarantine away from other persons and seek a PCR test from a healthcare provider.  No one is allowed to return to campus without a negative PCR test result and having remain free of any symptoms for a minimum of 24 hours prior to return.
• Any individual identified as being in close contact with a COVID-19 positive person (currently defined as being within 6 feet for More than 15 minutes cumulatively within a 24-hour period) should:
  • If unvaccinated, quarantine away from other persons for 10 days; or,
  • If vaccinated, self-monitor for symptoms for a period of 14 days.
    • And provide a negative test result to the University between 3-5 days of exposure.
• Should symptoms develop, persons should follow the guidelines described in 2 above. 
• A student-athlete who stays in town for their isolation or quarantine IS ALLOWED to work with the team’s athletic trainer and strength coach to continue to work on their strength and conditioning as long as they meet the following:
  • If in isolation, you cannot start this until after 3 days from positive test or symptom(s) onset.
  • The workout must be performed outside and during a different time period as the rest of the student population.
  • We recommend an isolation group and a quarantine group to ensure transmission rate is as low as possible.
  • Everyone must remain socially distanced during this.
  • Equipment used must be disinfected.
  • The student-athlete must be symptom free or fall into the mild illness category of the cardiac consideration Algorithm from the NCAA Medical Advisory Board.
  • Consider only doing this when that athlete is in season as to not make it more time consuming on the staff.
  • The staff must feel comfortable providing this service to their athlete and the athlete must choose to perform this workout and not mandatory.
• If a student-athlete goes home to isolate they must take 3 days off before continuing a workout overseen by strength staff.
• Beginning 9/22/21 all persons (employees and students) who are in quarantine from an exposure may test out of quarantine and return to normal activity on the 8^th day from exposure. They must provide the University a negative PCR test result performed on the 5^th day of quarantine via banner to do so.

Food Deliveries while in Quarantine or Isolation

• Currently, Team Coaches will be delivering meals to athletes who remain on campus for their Isolation or Quarantine. There are discussions happening to recruit others on campus to deliver these in the future.

 
Return to Play

• Those who are in quarantine for 10 days will need a return to play progression back to their sport.
  • Each sport will rely on the team’s Athletic Trainer and Strength Coach for guidance on this.
• Those who are in isolation for 10 days will follow the below cardiac testing needs list.
  • The cardiac workup considerations summarized are:
    • Asymptomatic or Mild Illness including: common cold-like symptoms with NO fever, GI symptoms, or loss of taste and smell.
      • Requires no cardiac workup needed moving forward.
    • Moderate Illness or Cardiopulmonary symptoms including: fever, chills, or flu-like symptoms or chest pain and shortness or trouble breathing
      • Requires EKG, Troponin test, Echocardiogram with a Cardiologist consult.
    • https://www.amssm.org/Content/pdf-files/COVID19/NCAA_COVID-18-AUG-2021.pdf
• This will be performed with Southview Cardiology as we navigate the Student Health Center Discussion.
• All cardiac billing associated with COVID19 will be covered by Samford Cares money. Team Athletic Trainers will need to get those bills to the business office to be processed correctly.

 
Unvaccinated/Non-Samford Personnel

• Examples of these persons are spiritual counselors, team chaplains, team massage therapists, FCA counselors, etc.
• These individuals must abide by all Samford COVID19 Policies while on campus and with Samford Athletic Teams.
  • This is the responsibility of the Head Coach to oversee.
• All COVID19 testing of these individuals is not the responsibility of Samford Athletics, but their own responsibility.
• Each coaching staff is responsible for deciding how important the interactions with such members and their team.

 
Competitions

• The SoCon has voted and there will not be any rescheduling of events due to Covid related events, those games will be forfeits.
  • We need to work to get as many people vaccinated as possible to avoid any forfeit of competitions.