When the Government of Ontario made it a requirement for post-secondary institutions to implement vaccine policies by August 17, the University’s Information Technology was hard at work on developing its COVID-19 Assessment Tool application to ensure a safe and successful start to the 2021-2022 school year for all students, staff, faculty, and visitors.
The launch was successful. By early-to-mid September, around 50,000 students, faculty, and staff had filled out the COVID-19 vaccination declaration form, and those coming to campus were completing the Daily Health Check-In questionnaire to determine whether they were cleared to visit.
How the tool works
Students, faculty, and staff log in to the COVID-19 Assessment Tools application using single-sign-on, while others, such as visitors and contractors, need to register accounts to log in. Once logged in, users are presented with two sections: the COVID-19 Vaccination Declaration form and the COVID-19 Daily Health Check-In questionnaire. To access the second, they must first complete their declaration.
The COVID-19 Vaccination Declaration form allows users to declare their vaccination status and upload the necessary supporting documents. Based on their responses at this step, they would either be blocked until their submission has been reviewed or allowed to proceed to the next step: filling out the COVID-19 Daily Health Check-In questionnaire.
The COVID-19 Daily Health Check-In is a screening questionnaire designed by the Ontario Government’s Ministry of Health that prompts users with health-and medical-related questions, with the goal of determining whether the person is authorized to access the University’s campuses.
What are the benefits?
Having such a tool in place allows the University to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all students, faculty, staff, and anyone coming to campus, visiting residences, or using the University’s facilities. It also helps ensure that the University is following guidelines and requirements set by the Government of Ontario and Ottawa Public Health (OPH), allows the University to produce reports as needed, and enables groups such as Registrar and Human Resources to follow-up with individuals as needed.
What are the next steps?
The University and specifically its COVID-19 Recovery Task Force (CRTF) continue to work closely with Ottawa Public Health (OPH) and the Ontario Government’s Ministry of Health to keep up to date with changing mandates and public health measures, as these may affect the policies and procedures the University has put in place.
The COVID-19 Assessment Tools application is designed to accommodate the potential future changes to the definition of ‘fully vaccinated and already allows users to re-submit their declaration should their status change, or should they wish to upload further supporting documents (e.g., proofs of their boosters).
As for future enhancements, there is a growing desire to build and implement an add-on tool that automatically validates user-uploaded proofs. This would reduce the workload for those involved in the review process and may therefore be worth exploring down the road.