The university is continually monitoring conditions to determine what additional mitigation
actions the campus community should take to keep themselves and others safer. These
conditions contribute to the current campus status.
Current Campus Status
Alert Level: New Normal
Don’t let your guard down! Get tested and consistently practice physical distancing,
use of face coverings, hand washing and reducing unnecessary social interaction –
especially after hours and on weekends in order to keep yourself and our campus safe.
As Gamecocks, it is our responsibility to ourselves and to our community to practice
effective ‘Mitigation Behaviors,’ as these are essential public health practices even
within small friend groups. Social gatherings must be approved, planned and conducted
in accordance with relevant campus policies, community regulations, ordinances and laws. The university has recently expanded
testing capacity and is continuing environmental monitoring. Finally, to keep our
families and home communities safe, we strongly encourage students, faculty and staff
to test for COVID (or antibody testing if you believe you have had the virus) prior to leaving campus at Thanksgiving. Expanded
testing hours go into effect November 1.
The COVID-19 monitor is a dashboard that reflects details about current conditions
on the Columbia campus. The dashboard will be updated with the latest information
on Tuesdays and Fridays. University leadership uses this information to determine
the campus alert level.
The chart above reflects the total space designated by the university for quarantine
and isolation of students, faculty and staff. Students who live off campus, in the
privately-owned Greek Village, or quarantine off campus are not included in this data.
Isolation — This refers to confining a confirmed COVID-19 case to prevent the individual’s
contact with others and to reduce the risk of transmission. Isolation ends when the
individual meets pre-established clinical and/or testing criteria for release, which
typically means that sufficient time has passed since the resolution of their symptoms.
Isolation may be enforced through a public health order.
Quarantine — The CDC defines quarantine as separating and restricting “the movement of people
who were exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick.” Quarantines
are for people or groups who have not yet been diagnosed with an infection, but have
known exposures to a confirmed case. A quarantine is a time period in which public
health and/or healthcare officials will monitor a person to see if they develop symptoms.
A person will be asked to stay in quarantine until they have exceeded the incubation
period without any development of clinical disease. If a person does develop disease
or test positive, they will be transitioned to “isolation” to continue monitoring
their clinical disease and limit their contact with others. Quarantines may be enforced
through a public health order.
Active Cases – A case confirmed by a COVID diagnostic test, or a case that is presumed positive
based on symptoms and/or close contact with a known positive COVID individual. An
active case is an individual considered to be within the timeframe of potential viral
spread to others. Active cases will need to complete all health directives to be allowed
to return to campus.
Campus Condition Factors
Campus Testing – Availability, capacity and turnaround time for all forms of COVID testing for students,
faculty and staff.
Contact Tracing – The ability of campus health team to contact trace all of those exposed to newly
identified cases among students, faculty and staff within 48hrs.
Isolation and Quarantine Capacity – A measure of the available of on-campus beds for isolation and quarantine.
Environmental Monitoring – The capacity to conduct early detection to identify COVID spikes and focus specific
mitigation strategies to areas of outbreak.
Campus Case Burden – The levels at which active campus cases triggers increased health and safety measures.
Infection Prevention Supplies – The availability and distribution of items such as face coverings, hand sanitizer,
and cleaning supplies.
Campus Health Center Capacity – The availability of UofSC health care facilities, staff and equipment needed to
provide quality physical and mental health care to the campus community.
Community Health Center Capacity – The availability of regional health care facilities, staff and equipment needed
to provide quality physical and mental health care for the Midlands and for South
Carolina in general.
Mitigation Behaviors – Compliance by students, faculty and staff with behaviors intended to reduce the
spread of COVID, to include wearing of face coverings, maintaining social (physical)
distance, and frequent hand washing.
Campus Impact on Operations – The presence and impact of COVID on the availability of the campus workforce, facilities,
supplies and the impact of adverse weather/natural disasters on existing resources.
Community Impact on Operations – The presence and impact of COVID on the Midlands and the impact of adverse weather/natural
disasters on the community’s ability to respond to those challenges.
Challenge the conventional. Create the exceptional. No Limits.
