HOUSING AND COVID-19

A communal household/student house is a group of at least three people cohabiting, who have deliberately chosen to form a single household despite there being no family or romantic relationship between them. A communal household of this kind is considered to be a permanent household.

This webpage provides you with more information on how you can prevent yourself from becoming ill, how to avoid spreading the virus, what you need to do if you show symptoms and what to do if someone in your household shows symptoms

PREVENTING BECOMING ILL OR SPREADING THE VIRUS

These are the most important measures you can take to prevent yourself from becoming ill or spreading coronavirus (guidelines set by the RIVM (Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment)):

• Wash your hands regularly with soap and water.
• Cough or sneeze into the crook of your elbow.
• Use paper tissues.
• Do not shake hands.
• If you develop cold/flu symptoms, stay home and get tested.
• Keep a distance of 1.5 m (two arm lengths) from people outside your household.

ADDITIONAL GUIDELINES FOR COMMUNAL HOUSEHOLDS/STUDENT HOUSES (RIVM GUIDELINES):

• When people visit the household, make sure to maintain a distance of 1.5 m.

   Make clear agreements about this with your housemates.

• Do not visit other places with more people than necessary, for example when going shopping.
• If a person in the household travels in from a red/orange country he/she needs to stay in preventive quarantine for 10 days. Other persons of the household do not need to stay in preventive quarantine and are free to leave the house and move around, unless the person quarantined or another person of the household shows Covid-19 symptoms (see this webpage for more information on preventive quarantine).
• If one person in the household shows symptoms, he/she needs to be tested as soon as possible. If the symptoms of the person in the household include fever/shortage of breath, all members of the household have to stay at home until test results are in. If a person of the household gets tested positive for Covid-19, he/she will receive instructions from GGD for the complete household on what (not) to do.
• Observe the hygiene measures (see above) and clean kitchens, bathrooms, floors, toilets more frequently than usual.

ADDITIONAL ADVICE FROM THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF STUDENT ASSOCIATIONS (LKVV)

• In order to avoid spreading the virus as much as possible, you should only travel to your parental home or your student house if both households are free of symptoms. When you use public transport, try to avoid rush hour. It is mandatory to use a face mask in public transport.

ADDITIONAL ADVICE BASED ON HOUSING PROVIDERS  

The only way of putting Covid-19 behind us as quickly as possible is for everyone to stick to these measures. UT students live in various different places. Some live in large communal buildings (IIH = ”ITC-hotel”, Stadsweide, UPark) or in rooms owned by the major room providers (Camelot, SJHT, Veste, XIOR). You can find more information regarding these housing on this web page. 

Others live in student rooms let by private individuals. For tenants in private student houses, we ask students to make agreements with each other based on the information in this document.

• Call each other to account if you feel that the guidelines are not being properly followed or contact the accommodation provider.
• On campus, campus security is making regular checks to ensure that the guidelines are being followed!