COVID-19 Spring 2023 Update

Castleton Community: 

Our Spring semester will begin on Tuesday, January 22, 2023. There are some specific actions you can take now so that together we can minimize the impact of COVID-19 on our campus community.   

Testing Before Your Return to Campus 

All are urged to complete a COVID-19 test prior to your return to campus and, if positive, stay home and complete the isolation period. A rapid antigen test will be provided to each enrolled student during the first week of classes since identifying a positive case early, ideally before arrival, will contribute to a successful start of the semester. 

Complete Your Vaccination Requirement

Our community has benefited from the high vaccination rate of students and employees. The safety of our students, employees, and local community members is our top priority as we continue to respond to the ongoing pandemic.

Students must meet the Castleton COVID-19 vaccination requirement or else they will not be allowed to move on to campus or attend classes. The vaccine requirement does not apply to students who will not come on to the physical campus for any reason during the 2022-2023 academic year, such as those who are taking classes exclusively online

Isolation For Positive Cases This Semester 

If you test positive, regardless of vaccination status, you must remain isolated for minimally 5 days.

You can leave isolation 5 full days after a positive test if:
• You never had symptoms or symptoms have improved
• and no fever for at least 24 hours without using fever-reducing medicine
• and you wear a mask around others through day 10

When you test positive for COVID-19, isolation is counted in days, as follows:

• Day 0 is the day you were tested (not the day you received your positive test result)
• Day 1 is the first full day following the day you were tested
• If you did not previously have symptoms and if you develop symptoms within 10 days of when you were tested, the clock restarts at day 0 on the day of symptom onset

We have maintained limited separate isolation housing for residential students. In the event that COVID-19 cases outpace the room availability, we will allow for recovery in place. All isolation and recovery policies and practices will be made in consultation with the Vermont Department of Health.

A Successful and Safe Semester Ahead 

To maintain a vibrant and active campus this semester we must remember how we got here. Therefore, this is an excellent time to review our basic protections against the spread of COVID-19: