Infection Chain Case Management at TU Berlin

With infection numbers (incidence rate) increasing, public health authorities are likely to continue to prioritize situations with a high potential for infection and/or involving persons with an increased risk of severe COVID-19 illness for tracking and tracing purposes. Situations with less risk of infection such as at TU Berlin (e.g. events where a hygiene concept is in place and with a high number of vaccinated / recovered persons) will be given lower priority. Due to restricted capacities, the public health office may decide not to trace contact persons for situations with lower priority.

Take responsibility

Preventing infection chains at TU Berlin requires a high level of responsibility and solidarity from everyone. If you test positive, you are required to follow the relevant regulations for self-isolation. According to these regulations, persons who have had close contact to an infected person are required to quarantine. This is particularly important as public health authorities are now generally only able to issue instructions to quarantine for situations with high priority.

Please refer to the information under "Direct contact (close contact persons)" in the section for supervisors when assessing the level of risk for close contacts. Staff should work from home (if possible) until the situation is resolved and students who are neither fully vaccinated nor recovered should not attend in-presence classes for a period of seven days after contact. We recommend staff and students take a voluntary self-test or rapid test before returning to campus.

What do I do if I have typical COVID-19 symptoms?

According to the Robert Koch Institute, the most commonly reported symptoms or signs are:

• Cough
• Fever
• Runny nose
• Loss of sense of taste or smell

Staff with one or more of the above symptoms are urgently requested to leave their place of work on campus and contact a doctor.

If COVID-19 is then confirmed by a doctor, staff are required to inform their supervisor and their place of work without delay.

The following RKI guidelines may be helpful when assessing the risk for any possible persons with close contact. Discuss your situation with your supervisor as well as with the Medical Service and Occupational Health or Safety Services and Environmental Protection at TU Berlin if necessary.

It is recommended that contact persons not classified as close contact persons and thus not required to quarantine perform self-tests over a period of 7 days. Self-tests (2 per week) are available from the Hygiene Storage Facility at TU Berlin (EW Building, ground floor).

Risk assessment - direct contact (close contact persons)

1. Close contact (<1.5 m) for longer than 10 minutes without adequate protection (surgical mask or FFP-2 mask).
2. Presence in a room with a probable high concentration of infectious aerosols with an infected person for more than 10 minutes, regardless of distancing and even if surgical masks or FFP-2 masks were worn correctly throughout the entire time.
3. Speaking with an infected person (face-to-face contact <1.5 meters, regardless of the duration of the conversation) without adequate protection (wearing correctly fitted surgical or FFP-2 masks).

Relevant time interval for close contact persons:
Contact within 2 days prior to the onset of initial symptoms or within 2 days prior to the day the sample was taken for a positive test (symptomless persons).

Inform your supervisor or instructor that you have had close contact so that they can introduce further measures.

As per the Infection Protection Act, close contact persons are required to quarantine for a period of 10 days. Quarantine can be ended after 7 days with a negative PCR or antigen rapid test. During this period, you should continue your work or studies from home.

In accordance with the regulations, contact persons who have received a booster jab or a recent second vaccination as well as contact persons who have recovered and received one vaccination or recently recovered are exempt from the requirement to quarantine.

The TU Berlin medical service (BÄD) is available to answer questions and provide advice on vaccination protection or in the event of symptoms typical of COVID-19.

The Crisis Committee can be contacted at krisenstab(at)tu-berlin.de and is the contact point for issues requiring decisions relating to the development of the pandemic (e.g. approval of hygiene concepts or of exceptional cases). 

The Corona Warning App provided free of charge by the national government is voluntary for private cell phones. TU Berlin recommends that you make active use of this app. All users of a cell phone issued by TU Berlin for work purposes are asked to install the app on it, if this is technically possible.

Information on testing opportunities for TU members can be found online.