IU announced in a Friday email that all IU-Bloomington students must be tested for the coronavirus within 10 days of returning to campus and report the results to the university. Students will not be allowed to attend classes or participate in any activities on campus until they receive and report negative test results, and there will be no exemptions.
According to the email, students can get tested anywhere and will have to pay for it themselves. The website FAQ notes that if students live in Indiana, the Indiana State Department of Health provides free testing all over the state, and other state and local health departments are offering free testing as well.
IU will release information about how to report results in the coming days, the email said.
Students coming from within the U.S. must be tested within 10 days of arriving in Bloomington, and students already living in Bloomington should be tested within 10 days of classes starting.
If students are coming from out of the country, they must self-quarantine for 14 days after they arrive in the U.S. In the email, the university recommends students coming from out of the country take the test four days into their self-quarantine or after their quarantine is over. If they receive negative results, they may stop self-quarantining even if 14 days have not passed.
Those who have positive results should not come to campus and should isolate themselves for 10 days, according to the FAQ. They should then retest when their symptoms have improved.
Staff and faculty do not have to get tested. According to the FAQ, students are being required to be tested because they are more likely to be in close-living quarters and group gatherings than staff and faculty. Students will also come from across the country and world, which makes testing the only way to contain the possible spread of the virus.
Students who live in dorms on the IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, IU-South Bend and IU-Southeast campuses are also required to be tested. At all other campuses, testing will be encouraged but not required at this time.
All students also have to sign the Student Commitment Form before returning to campus to agree to follow all guidelines and recommendations from IU.
CLARIFICATION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that all students at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, IU-South Bend and IU-Southeast campuses must get tested. Only students living in dorms on these campuses must be tested.
