COVID Policy
Our COVID policy is designed to keep BARN’s community safe and healthy while allowing us to fulfill our mission.
This policy is based on recommendations from Washington State Department of Health and Kitsap Public Health District. In the event Washington State or Kitsap County ever impose different public health requirements, those requirements will supersede this policy.
COVID is tough and the world is complicated. That said, our policy boils down to age-old common sense:
- Stay home if you’re sick or could get someone sick.
- While you’re here, take reasonable steps to keep people safe.
Access to BARN
Do not come to BARN if you should be isolating or quarantining. See the Washington Department of Health Decision Trees for details. In short:
You should isolate yourself if you test positive for COVID, or if you have one or more COVID symptoms and no alternative diagnosis. See Tree 1 for more details on isolation.
You may have to quarantine if you had close contact with a confirmed or suspected case of COVID. Close contacts should quarantine unless they are:
- “Up to date” with the COVID vaccine, OR
- Tested positive for COVID in the last 90 days and recovered.
See Tree 2 for more details on quarantine. Do not come to BARN while you should be isolating or quarantining.
Vaccination status
BARN no longer requires all participants to be up to date with the COVID vaccine in order to enter the building. However, BARN strongly recommends staying up to date on all vaccinations, including the COVID vaccine, as a step towards protecting vulnerable community members.
Do note that the Washington Department of Health quarantine guidelines described above are more flexible for those who are up to date with their COVID vaccine or who have immunity from a confirmed recent infection.
Returning to BARN
Once you have completed your quarantine and / or isolation, you may return to BARN following the Washington State Department of Health recommendations appropriate to your exposure, infection, and immunity circumstances. In short:
- Never come to BARN with symptoms.
- Following exposure or infection, don’t return to BARN while the risk of spreading infection is high.
- When you do return, wear a well-fitting mask until the risk of spreading infection has passed.
- Monitor yourself closely for symptoms.
Masks
In general masks are optional at BARN, subject to the exceptions below. We continue to monitor public health data and recommendations and may return to an indoor mask mandate if warranted.
Masks are required if recommended by the Washington State Department of Health. For example, if you were potentially exposed to the virus or are recovering from an infection you should wear a mask while at BARN as described in that policy.
In addition, masks are required if the instructor or studio monitor leading a class or open studio decides, at their discretion, to require participants to wear masks while in the studio.
Please respect the wishes and concerns of others regarding masks. If you need a mask, BARN staff can provide one.
Exposure notifications
As an employer, BARN is required to notify employees of potential exposure at the workplace. In addition, it is BARN policy to notify members, instructors, students, and volunteers about potential exposure while at BARN in accordance with Washington Department of Health guidelines.
For this reason please notify BARN staff (by emailing [email protected]) if you learn that you were at BARN while symptomatic with COVID or you were at BARN in the two days before developing COVID symptoms. Please also include any information you can to help identify close contacts about the potential exposure, such as which studio you were using, when you were here, and specific individuals you may have had close contact with.
After BARN receives such a notification, we will work to identify close contacts and inform them about a potential exposure. We will not identify the specific person causing the exposure unless they have given us their permission.
