Campus Safety: Strategy

HCC is now fully open, with staff available to serve students on all of our campuses. We offer comprehensive support services both in person and online for those wanting flexibility.

We ask you do your part to help maintain the health and safety of our community. The following guidelines detail our plans for continued safety in our instructional and administrative settings. We expect that all members of the campus community will assist by being aware and participating in our policies and procedures to help keep each other safe. Please continue to monitor our updates and protocols for mitigating risk and containing the spread of COVID-19, as updates and information continues to evolve over time.

Our Back to Campus Plan follows these key principles and goals, which align with HCC’s core values:

Health and Safety—Ensuring the safety of our faculty, staff and students, including health and safety guidance for individual and community-level prevention.
Open Access—Providing the broadest possible access to education, including flexible options for employees and students.
Academic Excellence—A plan for full-capacity operations to meet community needs while continuing to meet the highest standards of academic excellence.

Our Strategy

Our strategy for a safe community is based on guidance from the Safe. Smart. Step-by-Step. PLAN FOR FLORIDA’S RECOVERY, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), University Risk Management and Insurance Association (URMIA), and OSHA COVID-19 Health and Safety Topics. Building upon our understanding of COVID-19 symptoms and methods of transmission within the framework of our campus communities and facilities, we offer the following guidelines to address our needs.

These guidelines take into account information about COVID-19 that is known and may need to be updated as the situation and recommendations change.

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Key Actions

Wearing a mask/face covering. For those who are unvaccinated, please reference the Face Covering/Mask Protocol for more details.
Hand washing. Frequently wash your hands with soap and water for 20-30 seconds, or use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.
Cleaning surfaces. Clean and disinfect high-touch, high-traffic surface areas regularly.
Staying home if you are sick or instructed to isolate/ quarantine. If you are sick please stay home.

Understanding COVID-19 and Symptoms

COVID-19 is a respiratory illness that is thought to spread through droplets expelled when someone breathes, talks, coughs, sneezes, etc. In most instances of transmission, close contact (face-to-face interaction) is believed to be responsible for spreading the virus when an uninfected individual breathes in the droplets from an infected individual. Close contact is when a person is within 6 feet of another person for a prolonged period of time (around 10 minutes). The virus may also spread when a person touches a surface where droplets have settled and then touches their nose, mouth or eyes.

People with COVID-19 have reported a wide range of symptoms, from mild to severe, which may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus:

Chills
Congestion or runny nose
Cough
Diarrhea
Fatigue
Fever
Headaches
Muscle pain
Nausea or Vomiting
New loss of taste or smell
Rash
Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
Sore throat

Please note that some infected individuals may be asymptomatic (do not exhibit any symptoms) or pre-symptomatic (infected individuals who do not exhibit symptoms initially, but later exhibit symptoms during the course of infection). Find the most up-to-date information from the CDC.

HCC Protocol for Positive COVID-19 Cases on Campus

HCC is dedicated to the safety of our students, faculty, and staff that make up our HCC community. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical to continue to provide the broad range of educational opportunities to our students.

The primary method of limiting the spread of COVID-19 is for each person at HCC to take responsibility for their health and for the health of their coworkers, fellow students and faculty. Please review the following reminders:

Only people who have no symptoms should come to an HCC campus/site or enter an HCC building.
Please reference the COVID-19 Back to Campus Protocols for more details on face coverings and social distancing.
Individuals on an HCC property/site should follow the CDC preventive recommendations, which include washing your hands frequently and using hand sanitizer.
Individuals who develop symptoms while on campus are required to leave immediately after reporting to an instructor (for students) or supervisor (for HCC employees).
Tampa is a community spread region. Individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 and been on a campus/site should self-report to HCC. Every member of the HCC community must take personal responsibility to ensure that we do not knowingly enter a campus/site with symptoms.

What are the steps?

STEP 1: A Positive Test

Testing for active COVID-19 infection is typically through a PCR test.
- PCR testing for symptomatic individuals is available through a variety of health care providers in the Tampa Bay area. It requires a physician’s order. These tests are typically covered by insurance and have results in 24–48 hours but this could take longer with high demand.
- PCR testing for asymptomatic individuals is available through the Hillsborough County testing sites. These tests are free of charge, but the turnaround time for results is significantly longer, possibly 10 days.
Testing for past exposure to COVID-19 is through antibody testing. Antibody testing does not provide information about current infection, but can indicate that someone previously was infected.
- Antibody testing is available through a variety of Tampa labs. It can be done without a physician’s order.
- Antibody testing is a free service provided to blood donors.

STEP 2: Self-Reporting Positive

Students report to a faculty member or other HCC employees.
Employees report to their supervisor.

Recommended guidelines for faculty, staff and students who test positive or may have symptoms

Employees

If an employee believes they are experiencing symptoms, the employee is required to stay home and to notify their supervisor immediately.
If an HCC faculty or staff member has a positive test result and has been working remotely, the employee should stay home, away from others, and contact their supervisor immediately. The employee should also contact their personal health care provider for further instructions and practice self-quarantining. The employee may continue working remotely only if they feel well enough and at their discretion.
If an employee has been working at an HCC campus/site work location and tests positive, the employee should stay home, away from others, and contact their supervisor immediately. The employee should also contact their personal health care provider for further instructions and practice self-quarantining.
In any of these cases, the employee must not return to work until the employee's symptoms have resolved.

Students

Students who believe they have symptoms are required to stay home and notify their instructor immediately. The student should also contact their personal health care provider for further instructions and practice self-quarantining.
Faculty are asked to work with individual students on completing assignments. Should a student need to withdraw, the faculty member will direct the student to the Dean of Student Services for assistance.
Students are required to report positive COVID-19 test to a faculty member.

Our Community. Our Safety.

HCC is committed to welcoming faculty, staff and students back to all campuses while providing a healthy environment and effective academic delivery. Consequently, every person coming to HCC—whether a faculty member, a staff member, student, vendor or visitor—is expected to follow our health and safety guidelines as guided by the CDC. This is to protect people around you if you are infected but do not have symptoms, as well as to protect you from others who may be infected.

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Vulnerable Populations or High-Risk Individuals

We will continue to support a virtual work environment for those who may be at increased risk or vulnerability. Human Resources (HR) will provide further direction on the process for such accommodations in Return to Work Guidelines.

The CDC defines individuals at high risk for severe illness from COVID-19 to include:

Adults age 65 and older.
People of all ages with underlying medical conditions, particularly if not well controlled, such as:
- chronic kidney disease (undergoing dialysis)
- chronic lung disease or moderate to severe asthma
- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- cystic fibrosis
- diabetes
- hypertension or high blood pressure
- immune-compromised individuals, such as smokers and those experiencing cancer treatments, bone marrow or organ transplantation, immune deficiencies, poorly controlled HIV or AIDS, or prolonged use of corticosteroids and other immune-weakening medications
- liver disease
- neurologic conditions (such as dementia)
- pregnancy
- pulmonary fibrosis
- serious heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathies
- severe obesity (body mass index of 30 or higher)
- sickle cell disease
- thalassemia

Face Coverings and Masks

Adherence to the Guidelines

To facilitate adherence to the guidelines:

HCC provides masks to faculty, staff and students if needed. Disposable masks are available at the Coronavirus Resource Kiosks at each HCC facility. However, you are encouraged to bring your own face covering/mask. Please reference the Face Covering/Mask Protocol for more details.
Hand sanitizer stations are widely deployed across campus facilities to complement good hand washing practice.
COVID Resource Kiosks are available at each campus and site where faculty, staff and students may take their temperatures. You should leave HCC property immediately if you have a fever. The CDC defines a fever as a measured internal temperature of 100.4 degrees F (38.0 degrees C) or greater.
HCC continues to use CDC-approved protocols for the cleaning and maintenance of all facilities, including classrooms, offices and public spaces. Common touch points (e.g., doorknobs, phones, keyboards, elevator buttons, etc.) receive special attention.
HCC is working with individuals at high risk for complications from COVID-19 to identify reasonable accommodations through an interactive process.

Hand Sanitizer

Hand sanitizer is a key component in helping to prevent the spread of COVID-19. HCC provides hand sanitizer for our faculty, staff and departments for use in their offices, workstations and public departmental areas.

HCC has supplied each full-time employee with a quart of sanitizer at their desk for their personal use. Additionally, departments may continue to order additional quarts to supplement the wall-mounted dispensers in areas where hand sanitizer is needed in student-focused area such as advising, student services, bursar, or other areas where students and visitors receive services. There are additional hand sanitizer dispensers college-wide in public areas and classrooms/labs that are maintained by district facilities staff.