There appear to be multiple possibilities for how the disease is transmitted from person to person. Because we don't know the relative importance of these possibilities, we need to protect against all of these possibilities, which include:

close contact with an infectious person
respiratory droplets when an infected person talks, coughs, or sneezes
surface contamination of shared spaces and equipment

For this reason, our strategy to protect the community from the coronavirus at Keene State consists of three elements, held together by the community's situational awareness of the pandemic conditions.

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1. Physical distancing: This is accomplished by 1) self screening of people before they come to campus and 2) maintaining a 6 foot physical distance from all other people while on campus —anyone could be unknowingly infectious.

2. Community protective equipment: All faculty, staff, students and visitors are required to cover their nose and mouth with a face mask while in public areas on campus.

3. Surface disinfection and hand washing: Regular hand washing and decontamination of common use surfaces is expected of everyone on campus.

1. Keep Your Distance

It is your responsibility to support the health and safety of other KSC community members by deciding each day whether you are healthy enough to come to campus before leaving home. The criteria for this decision is found on the Keene State Health Attestation form.

This form records your decision each day to come to campus. This determination includes taking your temperature to see if you have a fever. Taking your temperature is a well established way to check your health status. If you have a fever (that is, if your temperature is over 100 degrees F) or feel sick, stay home.

Record your decision about how you're feeling and where you are going on campus on the Health Attestation Form. The information will be important if someone is found to have the virus and we have to contact trace to alert others of a potential exposure.

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While you're on campus, maintain physical distance from other, potentially infectious, people. Six feet is appropriate in general; in circumstances where people are exercising, singing or near each other for extended periods of time, 10 feet is a better distance.

2. Wear Masks

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See the next page for a discussion of why and how you should wear a mask, both for yourself and for others.

3. Prevent Cross Contamination by
Avoiding Touching Your Face and
Washing Your Hands Regularly

Your eyes, nose and mouth are places where virus can accumulate after you have been exposed. So, touching your face unnecessarily can spread the virus into vulnerable parts of your body.

Similarly, infectious levels of the virus have been found on surfaces for up to 3 days after they are contaminated. The most effective way to disinfect your hands is to wash them with soap and water. Using hand sanitizers is a lesser second choice when you don't have access to a sink.

Key points to remember:

The single most important and effective action you can take to prevent infection is to wash your hands often.
Use soap and scrub every part of your hands for at least 20 seconds: more friction increases effectiveness.
Use a paper towel to dry your hands and turn off the water. Also use the paper towel to open any doorways as you exit the restroom if you are in a public area.

Things to remember if you have to use hand sanitizer:

It should be at least 60% alcohol; use enough to thoroughly wet your hands.
Ensure that the hand sanitizer reaches every part of your hand before it dries - rub your hands together until they are completely dry.
Don't wipe yours hands - the hand sanitizer needs enough time to do its job.

Note: due to the alcohol content of hand sanitizer, the sanitizer can be flammable. Be sure to avoid ignition sources for at least three minutes after using it.

While these three strategies can work effectively together, they require developing new habits. This is not easy, and we expect members of the Keene State community will need to help each other develop the new situational awareness necessary to maintain those habits.

Reminding others of the importance of these habits can be done in a friendly and supportive way. Research shows that groups of people can adopt new habits over the course of time, but until those habits are established, social support will be important in helping everyone remember to:

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Go to the next page to learn more about why masks are so important.