While the vast majority of our faculty members, librarians and administrative staff continue to work remotely, some have returned to campus to support students, research and other activities. Many other employees at the University – such as caretakers and individuals working in IT services – have continued to come to our campuses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to maintain critical services and our University infrastructure. At every step, including the recent move to a modified Stage 2 for the Toronto, Peel and York regions, we continue to support individuals currently on campus and follow the direction of government and public health authorities to help keep our community safe and healthy.
Provincial regulation and public health guidance now require that post-secondary institutions implement COVID-19 health screening for anyone coming to campus. In order to comply with these directives, a health screening is now required for all members of our community, including faculty members, librarians, staff, and students, each day they visit any one of the three U of T campuses or any other property owned or operated by U of T.
There are two ways that individuals can complete the required health screening and generate a risk status each time they come to U of T: by using UCheck to conduct a self-assessment, or by completing a paper-based or offline assessment log.
UCheck is the easiest and most secure way to complete the required health screening and generate a COVID-19 risk status prior to coming to U of T. Your risk status (i.e., “red”, meaning high risk, or “green”, meaning low risk) is securely shared with the University and will be reviewed from time to time as part of our compliance auditing process. Individual responses to the UCheck self-assessment questionnaire are not accessible by the University. More details on how to use UCheck, including how we are keeping this data private, are available through UTogether.
If you are unable to access the UCheck online self-assessment web portal, or choose not to use UCheck, please inform your manager, supervisor, Dean, Chair, or Academic Director (or their designate). In these instances, you can instead use a paper-based or offline self-assessment log to document the outcome after you complete your daily self-assessment. If you are unable to download the assessment log, please ask your manager or supervisor for a paper copy. Further information on the paper-based or offline self-assessment log, and how to respond to a red risk status, will be provided shortly to managers, supervisors, Deans, Chairs, and Academic Directors.
Any employee who receives a red risk status after completing a self-assessment is required to immediately contact their manager, supervisor, Dean, Chair, or Academic Director (or their designate) to determine next steps. If you have symptoms of COVID-19, in addition to reporting that on your self-assessment, you must also contact the University of Toronto Occupational Health Nurse at ehs.occhealth@utoronto.ca. The Occupational Health Nurse will conduct an assessment and will provide you with guidance on next steps. As a reminder, all staff must continue to inform their direct manager or supervisor through normal processes if they will be absent from work for any reason.
We all have a shared interest in being in a safe and healthy environment where everyone has completed a self-assessment before coming to U of T. Thank you in advance for helping to create this space for us to work and learn together.