March 10, 2020

To Faculty, Staff, Students, and On-Site Partners:

We wanted to provide you with a number of updates from the New York State Office of the Governor, New York State Department of Health, as well as related SUNY guidance and directives, regarding the current COVID-19 situation. We hope the information will help further clarify current policies and encourage consistent, best practices to support our community’s health and wellness.

First, we wanted to make you aware that Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has declared a State of Emergency during a recent public briefing to contain the spread of COVID-19. Please find a link to the news release here: https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/novel-coronavirus-briefing-governor-cuomo-declares-state-emergency-contain-spread-virus, with additional updates here: https://www.governor.ny.gov/news.

Second, we wanted to share a recent statement from New York State Department of Health Commissioner Doctor Howard Zucker, providing testing guidance, as well as quarantine and isolation guidance. Please find a link to the full statement here: https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/statement-new-york-state-department-health-commissioner-doctor-howard-zucker.

The quarantine and isolation guidelines (provided at the links above and below) from the New York State Department of Health currently indicate the following:

• Status for Required Mandatory Quarantine—Person has been in close contact (6 ft.) with someone who is positive, but is not displaying symptoms for COVID-19; or person has traveled to China, Iran, Japan, South Korea, or Italy and is displaying symptoms of COVID-19; 
   
• Status for Required Mandatory Isolation—Person has tested positive for COVID-19, whether or not displaying symptoms for COVID-19. Local Health Departments (LHDs) must immediately issue an order for Mandatory Quarantine or Isolation once notified, which shall be served on the person impacted.  
   
• Status Required for Precautionary Quarantine—Person meets one or more of the following criteria: (i) has traveled to China, Iran, Japan, South Korea, or Italy while COVID-19 was prevalent, but is not displaying symptoms; or (ii) is known to have had a proximate exposure to a positive person but has not had direct contact with a positive person and is not displaying symptoms. In addition, any person the LHD believes should be quarantined, not addressed here, the LHD should contact NYS DOH.

Out of an abundance of caution, SUNY has also directed that no SUNY Poly employees are to travel to CDC Level 2 or 3 countries. To support the health and safety of students, faculty, staff, and vendors, SUNY Poly will provide its employees who have traveled (on work assignment or for personal reasons) to Level 2 and 3 countries, as determined by the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with alternate off-campus work assignments for fourteen days, a time period based on currently recognized health guidelines.

Until further notice, if an employee in the future travels to a then-listed Level 2 or 3 country or region, that employee will be subject to the same self-isolation or precautionary quarantine requirements as those who have recently returned. As mentioned above, the CDC has listed China, Iran, South Korea, Italy, and Japan as Level 2 or above countries or regions. Please note that all SUNY Poly affiliates, RF employees, and their tenants are also directed to follow this policy.

For more details about this guidance, which SUNY and SUNY Poly are adhering to, please visit: https://www.governor.ny.gov/sites/governor.ny.gov/files/atoms/files/Interim_Containment_Guidance_COVID-19.pdf#_blank.

In addition, the Human Resources Office would like to encourage employees to consider updating their contact information and signing up to receive their paychecks via direct deposit in SUNY self-service. This may be helpful in case any employees and student employees must stay home. Directions to do so are located here for NYS employees: https://sunypoly.edu/human-resources/new-york-state-employees/payroll.html, and here for RF employees: https://sunypoly.edu/contact/offices/human-resources/human-resources/research-foundation-employees.html.

We will continue to communicate significant updates to you via e-mail, in addition to posting the latest information to the SUNY Poly COVID-19 webpage, which we strongly urge you to visit to stay on top of this evolving situation: https://sunypoly.edu/covid19.html.

Sincerely,

Dr. Grace Wang
Interim President
SUNY Polytechnic Institute