Starting Nov. 4, the feeling of forgetting about something important that lingers at the back of students’ minds is probably a missing assignment, not the Colorado State University daily symptom checker. 

In a Wednesday afternoon email, the Pandemic Preparedness Team announced a COVID-19 reporter that will replace the daily symptom checker for students, faculty and staff at CSU. 

“CSU students, faculty and staff no longer need to fill out the daily symptom checker and no longer need to document for CSU Public Health their daily screening when they are not experiencing symptoms of illness,” the email said. 

“The new tool — the (COVID-19) reporter — focuses on providing a range of reporting options to students, faculty and staff to better serve our community and better inform CSU public health and pandemic officials of concerns.” -The Pandemic Preparedness Team

Now, students, faculty and staff only need to report their symptoms if they have any, and the Pandemic Preparedness Team said they should report symptoms as soon as they experience them, even if they are not going to be on campus that day.

The Pandemic Preparedness Team wrote in an email to The Collegian that students and employees have submitted over 330,000 screenings since they implemented the daily symptom checker and that they receive thousands of reports each week.

“As the University’s response to the pandemic has evolved, the needs served by the previous symptom checker have also changed,” the Pandemic Preparedness Team wrote. “The new tool — the (COVID-19) reporter — focuses on providing a range of reporting options to students, faculty and staff to better serve our community and better inform CSU public health and pandemic officials of concerns.” 

According to the new webpage, CSU community members should also submit a report if they have been in close contact with or live with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, have tested positive for COVID-19 themselves or are in the testing process.

The COVID-19 reporter also has a form for reporting COVID-19 public health violations that gets routed to the Student Resolution Center. The form can be used to report any violation of the University’s COVID-19 policy that students, faculty and staff are required to follow while on campus. 

The form requires a date and location of the violation and an explanation of what occurred, along with a designation about the person in alleged violation of the COVID-19 policy, which includes students, University employees or visitors. 

Included with the COVID-19 reporter is an opportunity for CSU community members to report a concern about their work, school or living space.

“Alleviating the previous requirement to check in every day lowers the burden on students, faculty and staff and places the emphasis on reporting when symptoms are present or alerting the University to possible exposures, a positive test at a non-CSU site or other concerns,” the Pandemic Preparedness Team wrote.

Serena Bettis can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @serenaroseb.