SUNY New Paltz employees will be required to use the New York State Affirmation of Isolation form to provide documentation to the Office of Human Resources, Diversity & Inclusion (HRDI) about their positive COVID-19 cases in 2022.
This change follows the state’s move to allow counties to suspend contact tracing, which requires the College to revise our approach to documenting employee cases.
New York created the Affirmation of Isolation form to allow residents to state, under penalty of law, that they tested positive for COVID-19 and completed the required isolation period.
A similar Affirmation of Quarantine form allows residents who are not up to date on their vaccination to state that they were exposed to COVID-19 and completed their quarantine.
As pandemic conditions and management continue to evolve, these new Affirmation forms provide the College with a valuable tool for supporting employees who need to miss work or work remotely due to COVID-19 infection or contact.
When employees should use the Affirmation of Isolation and Affirmation of Quarantine
Any New Paltz employee who tests positive for COVID-19, whether on campus, off campus or using an at-home test, should fill out the Affirmation of Isolation and upload it to their COVID-19 Profile at my.newpaltz.edu by clicking the “Submit Off-Campus Test” button.
If you are unable to upload the Affirmation to your Profile, you can provide it to the Office of Human Resources, Diversity & Inclusion as a hard copy (drop off at HAB 603) or by emailing it to hrdi@newpaltz.edu.
Those who are not up to date on their vaccination (boosted if eligible) may use the separate Affirmation of Quarantine form to report a quarantine due to exposure to COVID-19.
Why this process is changing now
Governor Kathy Hochul announced in January 2022 that the state had revised its approach to contact tracing, isolation and quarantine to better deploy state and local health resources against the Omicron surge.
The new approach gives county health departments the ability to suspend contact tracing, which means that those who test positive may no longer automatically receive documentation of their case and isolation orders.
HRDI had previously used these health department records to manage employee cases that require missed work time or remote work.
In the absence of that documentation, the College will use the new Affirmation of Isolation and Affirmation of Quarantine forms as part of our local employee contact tracing process.
HRDI continues to conduct COVID-19 contact tracing of employees, including advising close contacts of confirmed positive cases and advising supervisors of employees’ release to return to work.
