‘Living with COVID’ - Updated COVID-19 guidance for staff

23 Feb 2022

A message from Professor Nalin Thakkar, Vice-President for Social Responsibility and chair of the Campus Management Group

Dear colleagues,

The Government has announced that some of the COVID-19 legal restrictions will end in England on Thursday, 24 February. While restrictions are lifting and a sense of normality is welcome, we need to be particularly mindful of those who may be more vulnerable to COVID-19 and the disruption COVID-19 can cause to planned in-person activity through staff and students needing to take time off through illness. Our priority is to continue to keep colleagues and students safe and to minimise disruption that could come from increased transmission on campus.

Whilst there is no longer a legal requirement to self-isolate following a positive test, it is important for anyone who tests positive to stay at home, avoid contact with other people for at least five full days and continue to follow the guidance until they have received two negative test results on consecutive days.

You should continue to report a positive COVID-19 test result. This will help us to make timely decisions on any changes to service provision which may be needed if significant numbers of staff aren’t able to work.

The best way to keep yourself and others safe is to get vaccinated and take up your booster vaccination if you haven’t already done so.

As we announced at end of last week you are not required to continue asymptomatic testing twice a week any longer.

Whilst we are no longer legally permitted to provide free testing kits on campus, you can continue to order free coronavirus rapid lateral flow tests online or collect from your local pharmacy until April 1.

We strongly encourage everyone to continue to wear a face covering while moving around indoors on campus. There will be some areas where you will be required to wear a face covering as part of local risk assessments, such as small crowded spaces. We will review this in April when the government is expected to make a further announcement about measures we should adopt to stay safe.

Sanitiser dispensers will continue to be available at key points around campus. We encourage everyone to observe good hand hygiene.

Additional support

If you are clinically high-risk, you should discuss this with occupational health so that suitable arrangements can be made for you to work safely.

We know this is still a challenging time for colleagues so we continue to offer a range of support for staff with caring responsibilities including 15 days of Coronavirus Special Leave in addition to our usual Special Leave allowance.

All COVID-19 guidance across StaffNet will be updated over the coming days and signage across campus will take time to update, so in the meantime please follow the advice contained in this message. 

Thank you

And finally, thank you to you all for your ongoing efforts during these unprecedented times. Our staff and students have continued to show great resilience and flexibility throughout the pandemic, and the role each one of us has played in following the guidance means we have been able to keep our campus safe, and will continue to do so.