Guidelines for infection prevention at HVL

Everyone must be aware of the following:

• Students or employees who are ill must not be on campus
• Employees in the risk groups must work from home
• Everyone must maintain a physical distance of at least 1 metre from one another.
• Everyone must practise good hand hygiene and cough etiquette
• Use alternatives to public transportation to campus whenever possible.

Both students and employees shall familiarise themselves with these guidelines.

You will also find usefull information on the NIPH website Infection control advice for the population.

Infection prevention measures

The pillars for halting the spread of the disease are as follows:

• Students or employees who are ill must not be on campus
• Students and employees in the risk group must work from home
• Everyone must practise good hand hygiene and cough etiquette
• Everyone must maintain a physical distance of at least 1 metre from one another

Persons who must not be on campus

You must not be on campus if you have:

• symptoms of illness
• a suspicion that you might have been infected
• been in contact with infected persons
• mild respiratory symptoms and are feeling unwell
• a confirmed case of COVID-19
• been in close contact with someone who has a confirmed case of COVID-19

If you have COVID-19 or have been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19, you must follow the Norwegian Institute of Public Health’s (NIPH) guidelines for isolation and quarantine before you can return to campus.

You can find more information and guidelines on the NIPH website regarding symptoms and illness and distancing, quarantine and isolation.

Good hygiene and cleaning

Good hygiene is important to limit the spread of disease. You must follow the NIPH’s advice regarding cough etiquette and hand hygiene, both when commuting to and from campus and when you are on campus.

More information about hand hygiene and cough etiquette is available on the NIPH website.

Every campus will have disposable paper towels in the lavatories and kitchenettes.

Hand sanitiser will be placed at entrances, in cafés and coffee bars, in lunch zones, beside the lifts on the ground floor and in data labs.

The campuses will have enhanced cleaning measures in exposed areas, such as lavatories, door handles, lift buttons and other high-touch surfaces.

You must personally disinfect equipment such as keyboards or treatment tables before and after use. All campuses will have disinfectants and wipes readily available for this purpose.

In ordinary teaching rooms cleaning must be carried out before everyone sits down and the teaching starts. More on this in the checklist for infection control in ordinary teaching rooms.

Guidelines and infection prevention and control in SimArena

The guidelines for the use of SimArena laboratories will be subject to the general infection prevention rules provided by the NIPH/Norwegian Directorate of Health and the Folk High School/HVL Emergency Management Team at all times. Wherever activity can be adapted to a maximum of 50 participants and a minimum physical distance of 1 metre, everyone must abide by the infection prevention rules. Training in the SimArena laboratories will normally require people to be closer together than 1 metre, which means that should there be a case of infection, training will be defined as close contact.

The following rules must therefore be followed:

• Students who are ill or suspect they may have symptoms consistent with COVID-19 infection must not come to the lab or take part in activities at the lab. If you start feeling ill after a training session in the lab, contact your subject teacher immediately.
  
  
• Students who have been abroad in the 10 days prior to lab activity must have complied with the NIPH travel advice.
  
  
• Students and teachers intending to perform activities in the lab must have reviewed the information and infection prevention measures applying to training in the lab. This information will be posted on Canvas.
  
  
• In order maintain control of the number of participants and their contacts, we will establish cohorts/groups of students, with students remaining in the same cohort for all lab sessions. Each session must document who has participated and in which cohort. This is so that we will be able to trace any infection and limit the potential spread of infection if there is a case of illness.
  
  
• Teachers who are responsible for the arrangements in a lab will be responsible for establishing the cohorts, and documenting participants. If external teachers are used, the teacher responsible must inform them of the applicable rules and assist to ensure that lab activities are performed in accordance with these rules.
  
  
• The size of the cohorts must be designed around the training to be performed, taking into account the number of people allowed in the lab at any given time. Limit the number to what is appropriate, bearing in mind that everyone in a cohort must go into quarantine if there is a case of illness.
  
  
• For ordinary laboratory exercises, no additional personal protective equipment is necessary, other than that required by the learning situation. However, close face-to-face contact should be limited, and activity closer than the one metre rule should be kept as brief as possible.
  
  
• Hands must be sanitised frequently either by washing them or using hand sanitiser.
  
  
• Where teachers/instructors work within the one metre limit, they must finish working with one cohort before starting work with another. Clothing and changes of clothing must be appropriate for the activities being performed.
  
  
• Several cohorts may be active in the same room, provided that they are kept organised, at a suitable distance from each other and have no contact with each other. Teachers/instructors may move between cohorts, provided that they maintain a distance of one metre between themselves and the participants.
  
  
• Students and teachers/instructors must wear dedicated clothing or uniforms and indoor shoes for laboratory sessions, in accordance with the rules applying to the various laboratories. These must be clean and used only for this purpose. Students must change into the appropriate clothing on the premises, using the cloakrooms made available for this.
  
  
• Equipment and contact surfaces must be cleaned after use and between groups, so that they are always ready for new groups needing to use the facilities. It is not necessary to mop the floors after each group; this will be done by the cleaners in accordance with the specified rules.
  
  
• Waste and used cloths are to be collected and removed between each laboratory session, in accordance with the rules that will be posted in the labs.
  
  
• Students should go directly to and from the labs for their sessions. They should try to limit their time in corridors and cloakrooms as much as possible, and continue to maintain the one metre rule in these locations.
  
  
• Food or drink may not be taken into the labs or the laboratory areas. Food and drink must be consumed during breaks, in the common areas, in accordance with the rules applicable there.
  
  
• The laboratories will not be open for use by individuals between organised activities, and cannot be reserved while the infection prevention measures against the COVID-19 pandemic need to be maintained. Furthermore, during this period, it will not be possible to teach or make use of student assistants in laboratory activities.
  
  
• Rules for the respective labs will be drawn up with the assistance of the teaching staff, with the aim of ensuring that they can be safely and practically operated.

Work in laboratories and special rooms

This is where you can find guidelines for essential work in laboratories and special rooms on campus. 

Regarding the infection prevention and control guidelines

These guidelines are intended to ensure safe operations during the coronavirus outbreak, and follow advice and guidelines from the Norwegian Government, Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) and the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority.

The NIPH website regarding the coronavirus.