All NKU students, staff, faculty, and their families can get vaccinated at NKU’s Health, Counseling and Student Wellness office in UC 440 . The vaccine is free, and Kentucky residency is not required. Call (859) 572-5650 or email hcsw@nku.edu for an appointment.
You can also schedule vaccine appointments with the following organizations:
If you have side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine and are unable to work, you must remain home until the side effects subside. During this time, you may:
Please note: If an employee is absent for more than 7 days, they may be eligible for FMLA.
“Mask” means a covering made of cloth, fabric, or other soft or permeable material, without holes, that covers only the nose and mouth and surrounding areas of the lower face. A mask that hides or obscures the wearer’s eyes or forehead (a costume mask for example) is not a considered a mask for NKU’s purposes. A mask may be factory-made or may be handmade and improvised from ordinary household materials. The mask should be comfortable, so that the wearer can breathe comfortably through the nose and does not have to adjust it frequently to avoid touching the face.
Masks are required for all persons in common areas where you might voluntarily or involuntarily encounter another person. This includes conference/meeting rooms, hallways, lobbies, and other indoor spaces.
When students are in their room assignments within their residence hall, they are not required to wear masks.
NKU is providing reusable masks to all faculty, staff, and students. Reusable masks will be available using your NKU All Card from the Student Union Information Desk (2nd Floor) during normal building hours. Supplies may be limited.
Limited quantities of disposable masks may be available at the Welcome Center, Student Union and University Center Information Desks, Steely Library Distribution Desk, and Campus Recreation during normal business hours.
There are three types of tests for SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Gravity Diagnostics Lab offers a drive-thru testing sites where health insurance is not required. Visit the Gravity Diagnostic website for hours and locations.
If a PCR, Rapid Antigen test or antibody testing is desired, contact NKU’s Health Services office at 859-572-5650 to set up an appointment for testing in UC 440. Rapid Antigen testing is most accurate in those who are having symptoms of COVID-19. Results are available in about 15 minutes. If you have symptoms of COVID-19 that warrant testing, go directly home after you have been tested. Do not visit other sites on campus. Please be aware that testing for reasons other than illness or exposure may not be covered by some health insurance plans.
If your test results say DETECTED or POSITIVE, this means you have been infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. You should follow the CDC’s guidelines if you are sick or caring for someone who is sick.
If your test results say NOT DETECTED or NEGATIVE, then you were probably not infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 at the time your sample was collected. However, a poor sample or a test done too early in an infection may cause a negative result, and you could test positive a few days later. You could also get exposed to COVID-19 after the test and get infected then. This means you could still spread the virus. If you develop symptoms later, you might need another test to determine if you are infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. But, even if you test negative, you still should take steps to protect yourself and others.
If you test negative for COVID-19 with a Rapid Antigen test and you have COVID-19 symptoms, you may need a PCR test to make sure the Rapid Antigen test result is not a false negative.
For employees: If you test positive and are an NKU employee, you need to notify your supervisor that you will have to isolate. NKU also asks that you self-report on the University’s COVID 19 web site. Your supervisor will notify the Chief Human Resource Officer (Lori Southwood) if you are unable to work, or you will be off campus for an extended period of time.
If you have been advised to quarantine or isolate, you will need to provide Human Resources with documentation from your healthcare provider that you have been cleared to come back to campus prior to returning.
For students: If you test positive, please self-report on the University’s COVID-19 web site or notify the Director of Health Services (Rose Tempel, APRN, tempelr1@nku.edu or 859-572-5650). If you are a student that lives in University Housing, please contact the Director of Health Services as soon as possible. Also be aware that additional personnel on campus will be have to be informed of basic information so that the process of setting up an isolation room, meal delivery, and cleaning can be arranged. If you are a student worker at NKU, you will also have to notify your supervisor and self-report as an employee in addition to self-reporting as a student.
The Northern Kentucky Health Department may contact NKU’s Human Resources or Health Services to get more information regarding your locations on campus during the timeframe when you might have been contagious to others. All of these procedures are governed by NKU’s Communicable Disease Policy. NKU will follow all HIPAA guidelines regarding protecting personal health information.
All positive COVID-19 test results are required by law to be reported to the district health department associated with your home address. If you are tested on campus, NKU’s Health Services or Gravity Diagnostics Lab will report your positive test results to the state. The Health Department will follow up with contact tracing notifications of relevant persons regarding potential exposure.
If the Health Department has reason to believe that you have been exposed, the department will get in contact with you and advise you of the correct procedures to follow, which may or may not include getting tested for COVID-19 or quarantining. What the Health Department will advise you to do will depend on the unique circumstances of your possible exposure. If there is no reason to believe that you have been exposed, then you will not be notified of any positive test outcomes. These procedures are governed by NKU’s Communicable Disease Policy. NKU will follow all HIPAA guidelines regarding protecting personal health information.
The Delta variant is more contagious: The Delta variant is highly contagious, much more so than previous variants. Preprint data estimates are 43% to 115% more transmissible. The CDC lists it as 2x more contagious.
Some data indicate that the Delta variant might cause more severe illness than previous strains in unvaccinated persons: In one peer reviewed study, patients infected with the Delta variant were approximately 1.85x more likely to be hospitalized than patients infected with other SARS-CoV-2 strains. However, other studies (not fully peer reviewed yet) have not found this effect.
Breakthrough infections (for those vaccinated with FDA EUA vaccines) are VERY rare, despite how the media portrays them. For example, the effectiveness of two doses of the Pfizer vaccine was 93.7% (95% CI, 91.6 to 95.3) among persons with the Alpha variant and 88.0% (95% CI, 85.3 to 90.1) among those with the Delta variant against symptomatic illness, as determined by a study that analyzed all COVID-19 tests over a 6 month period for all of England. (England has a central national health registry.) In Kentucky, while half of the population is fully vaccinated, vaccinated patients comprise only 1.1% of all hospitalizations for COVID-19.
Fully vaccinated people with Delta variant breakthrough infections can spread the virus to others. However, vaccinated people appear to be infectious for a shorter period: Previous variants typically produced less virus in the nasal cavities of infected fully vaccinated people (breakthrough infections) than in unvaccinated people. In contrast, the Delta variant seems to produce similar large amounts of virus in both unvaccinated and fully vaccinated people. However, just as with the other variants, the amount of virus produced by Delta breakthrough infections in fully vaccinated people decreases faster than infections in unvaccinated people. This means fully vaccinated people are likely infectious for less time than unvaccinated people, though data that quantify how much less time are not yet available.
Unvaccinated people remain the greatest concern: Although breakthrough infections happen much less often than infections in unvaccinated people, individuals infected with the Delta variant, including fully vaccinated people with symptomatic breakthrough infections, can transmit it to others. We do not definitively know whether fully vaccinated people with asymptomatic breakthrough infections are contagious. However, the greatest risk of transmission is among unvaccinated people who are much more likely to contract, and therefore transmit, the virus. Over 98% of all COVID-19 related deaths in Kentucky are in unvaccinated patients.
Masking protectivity is unchanged: The Delta variant is more contagious because it can bind more effectively to our cells and because our immune system is less effective against it. But its method of transmission from person to person remains the same. While contagious individuals may shed more virus per unit time, if a person’s breath is appropriately filtered by a mask, then aerosol spread of SARS-COV-2 is stopped (or significantly mitigated, depending on mask type). However, it is important to remember that chin straps, mouth muffs, and ear dangles do absolutely nothing to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
