Medical FAQs

The most important step to take is to stay home and begin self-isolation. Call your health care provider and let them know your symptoms. Do not go directly to an urgent care or emergency department unless you are experiencing severe, life-threatening symptoms. In many cases, your healthcare provider will schedule a phone of Telehealth appointment to assess your situation.

• For employees (faculty and staff): Please stay at home and contact your medical provider. Notify your supervisor.
  
  
• For students: Your health provider is USC Student Health, please call 213-740-9355 (WELL).

Testing will become very common over the next few weeks. You should practice strict self-isolation until your test results are available. This includes staying home, ideally in a separate room and practicing self-isolation.

• For employees (faculty and staff): Please stay at home and contact your medical provider. Notify your supervisor. Telecommute if possible, and please seek guidance from your HR partner.
  
  
• For students: Students living in shared rooms on/near campus will be relocated to a single-occupancy room. Contact the 24/7 Hotline at 213-740-6291 for assistance.

Testing will become very common over the next few weeks and most people will soon know someone who is being tested. Many tests will be negative. Household, intimate, and close contacts should practice self-isolation until test results are known or as advised by your healthcare provider.

• For employees (faculty and staff): Within the workplace, thorough cleaning of surfaces is a proactive step while awaiting final test results. Please contact the hotline at 213-740-6291 for guidance on this issue.
  
  
• If you are unsure if you should practice self-isolation, please contact the hotline at 213-740-6291.
  
  

Testing and new diagnoses will become very common over the next few weeks and most people will soon know someone who is diagnosed. They will be advised to self-isolate and monitor their symptoms for a period of 14 days since contact. While awaiting formal notification, practicing self-isolation and symptoms monitoring is advised.

• If you are unsure if you should practice self-isolation, please contact the hotline at 213-740-6291.
  
  
• For employees (faculty and staff): Within the workplace, thorough cleaning of surfaces may be recommended. Please contact the hotline at 213-740-6291 for guidance on this issue.

Notify the university—call the hotline at 213-740-6291 to provide additional details.

Your information will be taken and forward to campus leadership to develop an individualized and coordinated campus response to support you and/or your unit. This may include access to campus support resources such as housing as well as initiation of deep cleaning of campus facilities. Managers and departmental leadership should coordinate all notifications through this process to protect privacy and ensure accurate and timely information.

An “exposed to an exposed person” does not require self-isolation or additional steps. Contact the hotline at 213-740-6291 if you have additional questions.

There is emerging data that COVID-19 is viable in aerosol form (“in the air”) and via fomites (“contact with surfaces”); this information is important to the health care setting where close contact with patients is frequent.

This may impact infection control recommendations for PPEs (personal protective equipment) and sterilization processes in clinical patient care settings, such as hospitals and dental practices (where close contact and aerosolized equipment are necessities for most procedures). It is unclear how much this contributes to the spread of infection in general community settings.

For general public interaction, this does not change current best practices recommendations:

• Social distancing (keeping a distance of 6 feet from other people, avoiding congregating in groups, not sharing food/drinks/utensils)

• Handwashing (or sanitizing gel of 60% alcohol solution) is the best protection for contact from surfaces

• Staying home if you are sick and using TeleHealth to communicate with your medical provider

• Cleaning of common surfaces in your environment with a household cleaning product

Please see the guidelines from the LA County Department of Public Health. 

Any USC student who needs assistance with making household arrangements in order to comply with public health recommendations should contact USC Campus Support and Intervention at 213-740-0411 or email uscsupport@usc.edu.

Coronaviruses, including COVID-19, are transmitted through respiratory droplets from an infected person (cough, sneezing, close contact). Standard Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-approved cleaning products and disinfectants are effective in cleaning surfaces.

The university is taking extended measures to ensure a hygienic environment, including regular cleaning of common areas, and refilling of soap and hand sanitizers.

All of us can take measures to protect our community from the spread of illness, primarily through social distancing (keeping 6 feet from others); good hand hygiene (washing your hands for 20 seconds with soap and water), covering coughs and sneezes, and staying home when sick.

As part of the communicable disease response team, a group of USC experts and responders have been meeting twice daily to share updates and activate necessary processes to safeguard our community. Currently this includes sharing accurate updated information with the community, enhancing cleaning and sanitizing measures at all USC buildings, and being in constant contact with local public health agencies. Campus facilities staff are using appropriate cleaning agents and enhancing cleaning in public areas.

No, the flu shot is formulated to match influenza viruses expected to be circulating in the United States during the 2019-2020 flu season (Los Angeles County is currently seeing a rising number of cases, so please get a flu shot if you have not already done so). The influenza virus is a different genetic makeup from the coronavirus. The coronavirus has many genetic variants, including the “common cold” that generally does not present serious adverse health risks.

As COVID-19 continues in community transmission in Los Angeles and elsewhere in the world, guidance on infection control measures will shift to meet the current challenges. In the U.S. and other countries, we should assume that everywhere we go, every surface we touch, every person that we come into contact with may potentially be infectious.

Recently, there are conversations about the role of face masks and/or cloth face coverings in reducing the spread of infection. Surgical face masks, and N95 face masks, are part of the much-needed supplies for frontline health care providers and first responders who encounter risks of exposure while caring for patients with illness. The close contact (within 6 feet, for more than 10 minutes) nature of the work puts these workers at greater risk of infection — through higher frequency and viral load exposure from hospitalized patients. A surgical mask is also an important supply for the patient who is ill; a “source control” measure to reduce respiratory droplets from reaching others. It is critically important to keep these items directed to our health care environment as we face a prolonged period of equipment shortage and face a surge in cases in the region.

Individuals who provide valuable “on site” work should be protected by appropriate “contactless” workflow provisions, appropriate social distancing (6 feet), cleaned and disinfected common work areas, and when recommended by Environmental Health and Safety, appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE’s). The EHS guide sheet explains the grades of risk from very low to high, with the appropriate safety measures.

For all individuals, the safest measures continue to be to stay at home for anything other than essential needs, social distance by minimizing contact with other individuals, staying 6 feet away from others, and frequent handwashing for 20 seconds or using a 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizing solution.

The addition of a cloth face covering (cloth mask, scarf, bandanna) when going out could act as an informal source control measure for controlling infectious particles, or by acting as a reminder to not touch your nose, mouth, and other parts of your face. USC employees working on campus and USC students residing on campus are strongly encouraged to adopt this practice. It will not be effective if there is a reduction in the previously established, more effective, social distancing and hand hygiene measures.

For more complete information on when and how to use, make, and clean cloth face coverings, please see these guidelines developed by EHS.

Additional information is also available from the Los Angeles and California Departments of Public Health.

Hand sanitizer is available in dispensers at locations throughout the campuses, and all members of the community are encouraged to use them. Remember that hand sanitizer does not replace handwashing with soap and water; handwashing is a more effective way to reduce the spread of infection.

The most up-to-date information on COVID-19 in the United States comes from the federal public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Specific local advisories for Los Angeles County would be issued by Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and other local public health agencies. We will share new developments with the university community via email and our COVID-19 website.