New Mexico State University is encouraging its students, faculty and staff to report their positive cases for COVID-19 back to the university by using the NMSU Ready Plan—which is the university’s systemwide return-to-campus plan as of this semester in the form of an online document.

Since the novel coronavirus entered the state in spring 2020 and all courses were moved to an online format as a result, NMSU has been preparing for its students from around the state, country and the globe to return to campus this fall.

The Ready Plan offers the NMSU community a link to report COVID-19 cases as well additional information such as guidelines and protocols designed to reduce COVID-19 transmission on campus.

Executive Director of Health and Wellness Lori McKee said that anyone within NMSU can use the plan’s website to learn how the university is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The ready.nmsu[.edu] website has all the things that we’ve done to prepare the campus for return of our workers and students on campus,” McKee said.  

To report a positive COVID-19 case to NMSU through the online plan, there is a button to click that reads “Report a Positive Test.” Once this button has been clicked, a new page titled “Tools for COVID-19” shows a self-report section with a button that reads “Begin.”

After clicking on the “Begin” button, a new page asks for a person’s name, Aggie ID, campus, occupation, contact information and information about the COVID-19 test.

According to the Ready Plan, voluntarily notifying NMSU of a positive COVID-19 case enables the Aggie Health and Wellness Center to conduct contract tracing under State of New Mexico requirements and guidelines.

The ready.nmsu.edu site also offers a self-check tool that is based off the Center for Disease Control’s Self-Checker. McKee said everyone at NMSU is encouraged to use this tool daily to look out for symptoms of COVID-19 but that the tool is not designed to replace a diagnosis.

“Self-check is something we encourage everyone to do every day, which is you go in there and it runs you through the questions and symptoms of COVID and it tells you if you’re good to go to class or if you need to maybe re-think it,” McKee said.

In addition to the self-report and self-check tools, a self-registration tool is also available. This tool asks students and employees to report any campus locations they have visited as well as days and times spent on campus for the purpose of contact tracing.

McKee said that anyone within the NMSU system is welcome to contact the Aggie Health and Wellness Center with any COVID-19 concerns.

More COVID-19 information and updates that pertain to NMSU can be found at nmsu.edu/coronavirus.