UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — To help individuals monitor and make informed decisions about their personal health and to help protect the health and safety of others, Penn State is strongly encouraging all members of the University community to use the COVID-19 symptom checker in the Penn State Go app to self-screen for potential COVID-19 symptoms.
Students, faculty and staff should complete the COVID-19 symptom checker before returning to campus and daily throughout the semester before attending class or arriving on campus or at a University facility for work.
The symptom checker does not collect or store identifiable information or data, and users no longer have to log in to access it. Penn State will only use and share anonymized, aggregated survey responses for trend analysis — for example, information that indicates a rise in symptoms at a particular campus — to inform next steps and the University’s COVID-19 response and mitigation efforts in support of the health and safety of the Penn State community.
Use of the symptom checker is in line with the University’s expectation that individuals will self-monitor their health, including taking their temperature, before leaving their residence to attend class or traveling to campus each day, as recommended by public health authorities. The University will not be conducting physical temperature checks at this time, except in select work groups and in health care settings.
The symptom checker is designed to be quick and easy to complete, and to provide students, faculty and staff with a mechanism to reflect on their personal health as part of their daily routines. Users are asked if they have been in contact with anyone who has had a positive COVID-19 diagnosis within the last 14 days, and to self-select if they are experiencing any of a number of common COVID-19 symptoms. Based on these responses, the checker then indicates if the user is cleared to be on campus, as well as the steps they should take if they have possible COVID-19 symptoms or exposure.
Those who have not yet downloaded the Penn State Go app and completed the COVID-19 symptom checker can do so by visiting the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.