The U.S. Department of State and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued international COVID-19 travel advisories and recommend reconsidering or avoiding travel to many destinations. Penn State is extending the same guidance to all students, faculty and staff. If an employee decides to travel internationally for personal reasons during the remote period after Nov. 20 and/or during the holiday break, Penn State’s expectation is that they will return to the U.S. at the beginning of the spring semester. While minor travel delays can likely be accommodated, employees who are unable to return to the U.S. by the beginning of the spring semester will not be approved to work remotely from another country and will have to go on unpaid leave until they return to the U.S. Requests to work remotely from another country — even for a short period of time — can create significant tax, regulatory, and other issues for the University and involve complex legal analysis and expenditure of significant amounts of time and resources. All University-affiliated travel continues to be suspended until further notice. If travel is essential (i.e., mission critical), the request must be approved by the unit executive and then screened by the Provost’s office (or Lora Weiss for ARL/Kevin Black for the College of Medicine).
In addition, all faculty, staff and students should familiarize themselves with Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Rachel Levine’s travel order, which requires that travelers over age 11 entering Pennsylvania from locations outside the commonwealth, including Pennsylvanians who are returning home, to have a negative COVID-19 test result from a test taken within 72 hours before arriving or place themselves in quarantine for 10 days without testing or a seven-day quarantine with a negative test on or after day five of quarantine.
For the answer to this question, as well as other frequently asked questions, go to virus info.psu.edu.