COVID-19 Information

Stay up-to-date with how you can help keep our community safe.

Updated September 25, 2023

Acadia University is pleased to provide our students, faculty, and staff with the opportunity to learn and work together safely.

We follow the advice of Nova Scotia’s Public Health Authority and our Occupational Health and Safety Committee. We expect all employees, students, contractors, and visitors to campus to do the same.

Acadia is advising students to use the declaration form for COVID-19 related absences.

Although masking is no longer mandated on campus, Acadia is mask-friendly and encourages mask use.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND OTHERS

  • If experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and its variants or other seasonal illnesses, please stay at home. If unable to, please wear a mask and follow all public health directives and recommendations while moving around campus.
  • Campus community members and visitors are urged to take personal precautions to keep themselves and others healthy.
  • Please be considerate of those in our community with health conditions that place them in high-risk categories or live with individuals with high-risk health concerns.
  • Remember to respect those who choose to wear masks in public places.

This website will continue to be updated as needed.

 

Vaccination is your best shot

Although proof of vaccination is not required to attend campus, in keeping with Public Health guidance, you are strongly encouraged to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and its variants, including having any booster shots that you are eligible to receive in your home province or country.

Being fully vaccinated protects you from a serious illness and helps reduce the spread of the virus when your symptoms are kept to a minimum. We also encourage you to monitor your health for signs of symptoms and take appropriate precautions. Washing your hands regularly and wearing a mask in indoor public spaces are great ways to reduce your potential for catching and spreading the virus to others.

Latest Updates

View all COVID-19 Updates 

Need Help?

Need Information?

Need Answers?

Contact residencelife@acadiau.ca for residence-related COVID-19 inquiries, and visit our Student Services page for mental health support and more.

Employees should speak with their direct supervisor.

COVID-19 Symptom Daily Self-Assessment

Thank you for doing your part to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Watch for symptoms:

Symptoms can vary from person to person and in different age groups. Symptoms may take up to 14 days to appear after exposure to COVID-19. The severity of COVID-19 symptoms can range from mild to severe, and in some cases, can lead to death. Current information suggests most people don't experience severe illness or need to be hospitalized.

You need to self-isolate and complete a COVID-19 self-assessment if in the past 48 hours you've had or you're currently experiencing:

  • cough (new or worsening)

or

  • 2 or more of the following symptoms:
    • fever (chills, sweats)
    • headache
    • runny nose or nasal congestion
    • sore throat
    • shortness of breath or difficulty breathing

Follow the prompts to determine if you require a rapid test or a PCR test.

Isolation Protocols

If you are experiencing symptoms, please isolate and stay home. Isolating means that you remain in your personal residence room or personal space (off-campus), avoid all contact with others, and do not allow others to visit you. You can use the washroom and disinfect, but wear a mask when you need to walk through common areas and do not share kitchen facilities. This is required by the Province of Nova Scotia Emergency Act and there can be fines starting at $2422.

Students

If you are a student and need to self-isolate:

  1. Contact Safety and Security (902-585-1103 or email security.office@acadiau.ca). We can help you and coordinate any supports you might need, including meal delivery if you live in residence.
  2. Notify your instructors to let them know you will not be physically present in class. They can arrange alternatives to keep you informed (remotely or otherwise) about classroom activities and assignments.
  3. Complete a COVID-19 self-assessment from the province to determine if you need a rapid test or PCR test, then book an appointment if needed.

Employees

If you are an employee or contractor working on campus and need to self-isolate:

  1. Contact your direct supervisor to let them know you will not be physically present on campus.
  2. Discuss your ability to perform your duties remotely or work out an alternative arrangement.
  3. Complete a COVID-19 self-assessment from the province to determine if you need a rapid test or PCR test, then book an appointment if needed.

If you are on-campus when symptoms occur

  1. Wash your hands.
  2. Wear a mask.
  3. Contact Safety and Security (902-585-1103 or email security.office@acadiau.ca). If you are an employee, also notify your immediate supervisor that you need to leave work.
  4. Go directly to your residence room or home with no stops. Wear your mask until you are in your personal space. Practice physical distancing and stay in your room except to go to the bathroom.
  5. Complete a COVID-19 self-assessment from the province to determine if you need a rapid test or PCR test, then book an appointment if needed.

If you test positive for COVID-19

  • Visit Public Health’s Tested Positive site and follow their guidance.
  • You will need to isolate for 7 full days, with your first day of symptoms considered “Day 0”.
    • For example, if you feel symptoms on January 2 (Day 0) and test positive on January 3 (Day 1), you would be required to isolate until end of day, January 9. To leave isolation, you must have no fever for 24 hours, and your symptoms should be almost absent or gone.
    • If you are not experiencing symptoms, then you would use the same time span using the positive test as Day 0, and moving forward from there.
  • Do not come to campus.
  • If you live in residence, do not leave your room except to go to the bathroom. please call Safety and Security at 902-585-1103 so they can ensure you are isolating, have the resources you need, and deliver meals to you. Please reach out to Safety and Security if you are having any concerns or issues.
  • Determine your close contacts. Identify which day your symptoms began and then go back 48 hours (which is when you would have begun being infectious) until you began isolating. For example, if your symptoms began on a Wednesday, consider all your activities beginning that Monday until you began isolating. Identify individuals, places, times, and if you removed masks during those times.

Mask and Vaccination Policies

Anyone coming to campus should continue to complete a daily symptom check. Effective April 30, we continue to encourage you to wear a mask and ensure you are fully vaccinated, but masks and social distancing are no longer mandatory.

Client Service

Be prepared for changes as we move through the Omicron wave/sixth wave of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia. Some services and departments may require a change in hours of operation, move to an appointment-only or remote model. We encourage you to contact the department or visit their website before visiting.

The provincial government has completed its three-phase reopening plan, and almost all province-wide restrictions (gathering, social distancing, etc.) have been dropped. Some restrictions remain in place in high-risk settings, such as healthcare and continuing care.

Provincial News Updates

Read the latest provincial news updates 

Parents/guardians entering Nova Scotia by vehicle to pick up a student and take them home as quickly as possible are considered essential travellers.

We ask that any parents/guardians coming into Nova Scotia to pick up a student follow these important health and safety guidelines:

Thanks to our community and our Province's creativity, versatility, and commitment, Acadia has successfully weathered the pandemic to date. Our response and learnings over the past year have put us in a strong position for continued success and a return to the more traditional on-campus experience in the fall of 2021, for which Acadia is famous.

Effective this coming Monday, March 1, 2021, Acadia University will offer students a less restrictive study experience in the Vaughan Memorial Library. New signage will explain protocols and occupancy limitations in private study rooms.

The library joins a list of locations considered mask-exempt to allow students to remove their masks indoors, provided they are seated and physically distanced from others.

 

Public Health is encouraging everyone who lives in, or has travelled to, the communities between Wolfville and Berwick, and surrounding communities to get tested. The Public Health Mobile Unit will be in New Minas and Canning for the next four days to provide an opportunity for community-based testing.

The Government of Canada is implementing several additional restrictions, including additional mandatory COVID-19 tests and the use of ArriveCAN for all travelers arriving via land or air. International travelers arriving by air will be required to book a 3-night stay in a government-approved hotel.

While I extend best wishes for a pleasant long weekend and study break, I share Public Health’s concern over the potential spread of the virus, especially with the presence of the more aggressive mutations. I strongly agree with Public Health’s advice to you to avoid leaving Nova Scotia. To help contain the spread of the Coronavirus and prevent the need for further restrictions, please stay locally at home or in residence here in Wolfville during the break.

As we move forward in these uncertain times, we would like to provide several additional areas of the Athletics Complex that have been closed since March 2020. Beginning Monday, February 8th, the pool, walking track, racquetball court, and squash court will be available on an appointment basis. The rink will also be available for rental.

Public Health is encouraging post-secondary students – and all Nova Scotians – to get tested regularly as part of living safely with COVID-19. Even if you have not traveled, even if you have not been at a location listed in an exposure notice, even if you do not have symptoms (asymptomatic) – you can help keep people safe by getting tested regularly.

In response to the recently announced case of COVID-19 in Wolfville and the resulting high number of people seeking COVID-19 testing, Public Health’s Mobile Health Units will be in Wolfville on Saturday, January 23 and Sunday, January 24. Public Health is encouraging anyone without symptoms who wants to get tested for COVID-19 to drop in.

Nova Scotia Public Health is advising of potential exposure to COVID-19 at Acadia University’s Student Union Building on January 18, 19 and 20 between 12 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.