What should I know when entering the university after 18 May?

University buildings are open as follows: 

Tallinn University's Research Library (Rävala 10, Tallinn) is open from Monday to Friday, 11 am to 5 pm. Only the reading halls located on second floor are open as a reading space.

Study Centre's (Astra building) first and second floor are open for readers from Monday to Friday, 11 am to 4 pm.

Film and Media Library (Nova building) is closed.

Gym (Vita building) is closed.

If possible, move on foot or by bicycle. If using public transportation is unavoidable for coming to work, then the Health Board has issued the following recommendations:

• if possible, wear a mask;
• cover your mouth with a handkerchief or a sleeve when sneezing or coughing;
• do not touch railings or other surfaces with your bare hands;
• do not touch your face;
• disinfect your hands as soon as possible after exiting the public transportation vehicle;
• if possible, keep a 2-metre distance with other passengers.
   

To minimise the chances of the employees, students and guests at the university contracting the virus and to ensure the safest possible work and study environment, the following recommendations must be considered.

• Only healthy and symptom-free staff, students and invited guests are welcome at the university.
• Hand sanitisers are available at the building entrances and when entering the building you must disinfect your hands. Disinfectants are also placed around the campus at the most frequently visited locations and near the most used lecture halls. The lecture halls are also equipped with surface disinfectants, which can be used for cleaning desks, etc., if necessary. 
• It is important to regularly wash your hands with warm water and soap when at the university, because this is the most efficient way and also the best for your health. Disinfectants must be used if it is not possible to wash your hands.
• Wearing a mask is not mandatory in the university buildings, but it is recommended for people in risk groups.
• Cough and sneeze in your sleeve. It is no use to put your hand over your mouth because the germs on your palm will easily be transferred. Do not touch your face, eyes or mouth with unwashed hands. This helps to avoid transferring the virus from your hands to the mucous membrane. 
• It is still important to reduce physical contact between employees, students and other persons on campus and in general the 2+2 rule must be followed in public spaces and in offices. Refrain from physical contact (e.g. shaking hands, hugging) to avoid transferring infection by droplets.
• It is recommended to regularly clean your work tools. Normal substances and methods are sufficient for cleaning, e.g. using a clean microfibre cloth dampened with clean water. 

Masks are an additional preventive measure. Wearing a mask is not mandatory in the university buildings, but it is recommended for people in risk groups. The university ensures masks and these can be obtained: 
 

• employees – from the academic unit office, the department administration or support unit managers; 
• students – at information desks.

According to the Health Board, wearing a mask is beneficial in public spaces (shops, pharmacies, medical institutions, public transport), where lots of people are present. Masks can reduce the possibility that when coughing or sneezing an infected droplet reaches another person. Covering your mouth and nose is a suitable aid measure at such places. Masks could also help a healthy person, because they slightly reduce the chance that the virus could reach the healthy person from a coughing person nearby by droplets in such amount that would cause infection and falling ill.

According to the Health Board’s recommendations it is important to pay attention to the following when wearing a mask:

• The mask must cover your mouth and nose when put on properly. If the mask has a wire then this must be on top. Press the wire securely around your nose. The lower edge of the mask is under the chin.
• You must change the mask if you have put it on your chin even once, repeatedly adjusted it with your hand, touched it.
• The maximum wearing time of the masks sold in pharmacies is 3 hours. Then it is recommended to exchange the mask because its outer surface my carry the virus.
• The mask may not be damp. You must change a damp mask.
• Used masks must be thrown into a garbage bin with a lid or placed in a closed plastic bag. You must never leave a used mask lying around.

Wearing gloves (incl. rubber gloves) is not mandatory and the university does not supply these. It is recommended to disinfect your hands before and after wearing gloves. Single-use gloves are not washed or disinfected. When you stop using gloves pinch the section of the glove between the palm and wrist using your other hand and pull the glove off so it turns inside out (the contaminated surface is thus inside). Then throw the gloves in the regular garbage bin.

If an employee falls ill outside of work (not while at the workplace):

• The employee must stay home and contact their family physician, who will then decide on the COVID-19 diagnosis, need for testing and incapacity for work certificate.
• Colleagues who have not had contact with the employee during the symptomatic period can continue coming to work but they must observe their health carefully over the next 14 days. In case of any symptoms, stay home and contact your family physician.
• The ill employee can return to work 14 days later on the condition that they do not have respiratory symptoms or a fever. The final decision is made by the family physician. 

If an employee falls ill at work (while at the workplace):

• The ill employee must go home immediately. The ill employee can return to work 14 days later on the condition that they are completely healthy – they do not have respiratory symptoms or a fever. The final decision is made by the family physician.
• At work, the rooms the ill employee used should be cleaned and disinfected as soon as possible.
• The ill employee must contact their family physician. The family physician will assess the possibility of COVID-19 based on symptoms, epidemiological connections or laboratory testing (the family physician decides on the need for laboratory testing).
• The employee shall inform the employer whether the COVID-19 suspicion was confirmed.
• If the COVID-19 diagnosis is confirmed, the people who had close contact* with the ill employee during the symptomatic period must be identified at work. People who had close contact must remain home for 14 days and observe their health. The rest of the employees can continue their daily work routines but they should carefully observe their health.
• If the COVID-19 diagnosis is not confirmed then the other employees can continue working but they must observe their health for 14 days.

 *A person in close contact is someone who:

• lives in the same household as a COVID-19 positive person;
• has had direct physical contact with a COVID-19 positive person (e.g. shaking hands), for at least 15 minutes and at a less than 2-metre distance;
• has had direct contact with a secretion of a COVID-19 positive person without protection (e.g. they have been coughed on, used the patient’s tissue with bare hands);
• has been in the same room as a COVID-19 positive person (e.g. a dining room, meeting room, hospital waiting room, etc.) for at least 15 minutes and closer than 2 metres;
• has been in public transportation near a symptomatic COVID-19 positive person, incl.
  - persons who were sitting in the same row and 2 rows in front or back,
  - travel mates and carers of a COVID-19 positive person.