COVID-19 Case Dashboard & Testing

Testing will remain available, and anyone with COVID-19 symptoms is still required to test. (Students, staff and faculty with COVID vaccination exemptions also must continue to test.)

Unvaccinated students will test every Tuesday and Friday throughout the fall semester. The college will determine spring semester policies prior to the January return to campus.

If you are symptomatic at any time, you must test within 48 hours of the onset of your symptoms. Any student who tests positive will be placed in isolation.

Students will be tested for COVID-19 at Tranquada Student Services Center. Students will receive results from Student Health Services via text and access to the Student Health Service portal.

You should expect to receive your results within 24 hours. You should receive a notification on your campus email account as well as a text message notification if you have provided us with your US-based cell phone number. If you have not received a notification of your results within 24 hours, please go back to the testing site and ask to speak with a supervisor regarding a missing test result and to verify your contact information.

It is the student’s/employee’s responsibility to log in and check their result every time they take a test. It is also their responsibility to speak with a testing supervisor if they haven’t received their results within 24 hours. There are no automatic phone calls for positive results, so you cannot assume that your test result was normal if you don’t receive a phone call.

Yes, the saliva test is indeed a PCR test.

If you test positive, please isolate yourself immediately. Students should isolate in their residence and reach out to their dean on-call.

Your positive test result also comes with these instructions, along with instructions on how to complete a contact tracing case intake questionnaire. Compliance with contact tracing is a requirement of a student’s enrollment and an employee’s employment. This case intake questionnaire should be completed within 24 hours of your positive diagnosis. Failure to comply may result in sanctions from your campus/employer. If you are having any trouble completing this questionnaire, please call the contact tracing line at (909) 607-9995 or speak with your dean.

No, repeat saliva PCR testing is not allowed after a positive result. Repeat testing within 90 days of a positive COVID-19 diagnosis may lead to sanctions from your campus/employer. Repeat test orders may also be cancelled and not processed by the lab.

Yes, according to Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, you are legally required to isolate after receiving a positive COVID-19 test result.

Your positive test result also comes with instructions on how to complete a contact tracing case intake questionnaire. Compliance with contact tracing is a requirement of a student’s enrollment and an employee’s employment. This case intake questionnaire should be completed within 24 hours of your positive diagnosis. Failure to comply may result in sanctions from your campus/employer. If you are having any trouble completing this questionnaire, please call the contact tracing line at (909) 607-9995 or speak with your dean (students).

Please DO NOT go back to the saliva testing site to test out of isolation. While it is true that there is an option to test out of isolation after 5 days (if you meet certain criteria), the test utilized for this purpose is a rapid antigen test, not the saliva PCR test. SHS has set up a separate rapid antigen testing site in the parking lot south of the Tranquada Building. After you have completed your contact tracing case intake questionnaire, the contact tracing team will reach back out to you and let you know when you will become eligible to schedule an antigen test. Antigen testing for isolation release will be by APPOINTMENT ONLY. No walk-ups will be accommodated and anyone walking up without an appointment for antigen isolation release will be considered in violation of their isolation order.

If your Day 6 or later rapid antigen test is positive, you must complete your isolation for the full 10 days. No repeat antigen testing appointments will be made. Contact tracers will reach out to you on Day 11 to see if you have met criteria for isolation release. Day 11 release does not require a negative test.

After a lab confirmed positive COVID-19 test result, you should not participate in routine asymptomatic screening tests (e.g., weekly testing) for a period of 90 days. Public health data shows that individuals may continue to test positive with PCR tests on and off for up to that time even though they are no longer infectious/contagious. If you develop new symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 within this period, please seek medical guidance (SHS, 7C Health, primary care provider) to ask if a one-time repeat test would be of diagnostic value to the clinician. Please note that only lab confirmed positive results will exempt you from SHS testing for 90 days. At home testing will not be automatically accepted for this exemption.

If you receive a positive test result from an outside testing location, you are still legally required to isolate. You should inform your on-call dean (students) as soon as you receive your positive test result. You should also inform the SHS contact tracing team* by email: contact.tracers@claremont.edu. Please attach a copy of your positive lab report to the email. After the SHS contact tracing team has completed your case intake, you will be provided a ninety-day testing exemption from the date of your positive lab test. If you develop new symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 within this time period, please seek medical guidance (SHS, 7C.Health, primary care provider) to ask if a one-time repeat test would be of diagnostic value to the clinician.

If you test positive using an at-home test, you are still required to isolate. Please inform your on-call dean as soon as possible. You should also inform the SHS contact tracing team* by email contact.tracers@claremont.edu. However, please note that only lab confirmed positive results will exempt you from SHS saliva PCR testing for 90 days. At home testing will not be automatically accepted for this exemption. Once you have recovered and been released from isolation, you should resume the saliva PCR testing. If you test positive on the saliva PCR test, it will confirm the previous at-home test result and the SHS contact tracing team will provide you a testing exemption starting ninety days from your at-home test date. You will not be required to isolate again if we were aware of your at-home test result prior to your saliva PCR test. If you test negative on the saliva PCR test, please continue weekly (or as specified to your situation) testing.

All faculty and staff working on campus are encouraged, but are not required, to test once per week at the Hamilton Health Box clinic located at 118 8^th Street.

The Hamilton Health Box Testing Clinic, located at 118 8^th Street, will be open for testing during the following hours:

• Tuesday 8:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m. and
• Thursday 2 p.m.- 3:30 p.m.

You can visit during the time slots the clinic is open and do not need to make an appointment. To the extent that you can, please try to test the same time each week.

First, you must report your positive COVID-19 diagnosis to the campus nurse Stephanie Garcia-Barragan. To return to work on campus prior to the 10 days of isolation, you must schedule an on-campus COVID-19 test as early as your sixth day of isolation. Tests will not be performed more than once. Outside tests will not be accepted as you must test on campus through HHB.

Pomona College will test family members of faculty and staff by appointment. The College will charge a fee to test family members.

Overseeing Pomona’s COVID-19-related health protocols and to consult with faculty and staff, HHB provides a bilingual nurse, dedicated to the Pomona campus but employed and trained by HHB, whose duties include:

• establishing and operating an on-campus clinic to provide COVID-19 advising, testing and contact-tracing services for the campus community;
• advising faculty and staff who report COVID-19 symptoms or exposure to someone who tested positive;
• administering a PCR test when appropriate and, based on test results, advising faculty or staff members on the need to stay off campus and when they will be cleared to return to work;
• alerting the College’s COVID compliance officer in Human Resources as to the work status of affected faculty or staff members;
• implementing contact tracing procedures in the event that a faculty or staff member tests positive for COVID-19;
• alerting other members of the Pomona campus community as to possible exposure; and
• helping the College community implement state and county public health standards and continue to develop appropriate health practices.

Faculty and staff can reach Nurse Stephanie Garcia-Barragan at the on-campus clinic Monday through Friday at (909) 607-0616.

If you are having an emergency, please call 911. You can reach the nurse to receive non-emergency consultations after hours at (909) 607-0616.