Health and Wellness | Student Health Services

Respiratory Viruses

You can take steps to protect yourself and the Saint Mary’s University community from respiratory viruses, including COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has released guidance that brings a coordinated approach to deal with risks from a range of common respiratory viral illnesses, such as COVID-19, flu, and RSV. These viral illnesses can cause significant health impacts and strain on hospitals and health care workers.

The CDC recommends the following steps and strategies:

Stay up to date with vaccinations to protect against serious illness, hospitalization, and death. This includes vaccinations for flu, COVID-19, and RSV if eligible.
Practice good hygiene by covering coughs and sneezes, washing or sanitizing hands often, and cleaning frequently touched surfaces.
Take steps for cleaner air, such as bringing in more fresh outside air, using your room air purifier, or gathering outdoors.
When you may have a respiratory virus:
- Use precautions to prevent spread.
- Seek health care promptly for testing and/or treatment if you have risk factors for severe illness; treatment may help lower your risk of severe illness

If you get sick with a respiratory illness, please take the following steps:

Stay home and away from others.
If you have COVID-19 or influenza, seek treatment. Current treatments can lesse symptoms and lower the risk of severe illness.
Return to normal activities when, for at least 24 hours both of the following are true
- Your symptoms are improving overall, AND
- You have not had a fever (and are not suing fever-reducing medication)
Once you resume normal activities, take additional prevention strategies for the next five days to curb disease spread.
- Take more steps for cleaner air
- Enhance hygiene practices
- Wear a well-fitting mask
- Keep a distance from others.

Together we are Saint Mary’s. Together we are stronger.

Student Health Services

Committed to providing quality, accessible healthcare for all students.

This includes assessment and management of acute illness and support of student health for ongoing conditions. Health education, health promotion and mentorship provide long-term benefits to students as they learn to navigate today’s complex healthcare environment and appropriately utilize limited healthcare resources.

Confidentiality:

All Wellness Center appointments and records are held in strict confidence. Information will not be shared with parents, faculty, administration, peers or anyone else without the student’s consent. An exception is made if a life-threatening situation arises.

Schedule an Appointment:

You will need to set up an appointment through the My Winona Health portal. If you already have a portal account, you can skip to the attachment which walks you through how to make the appointment. If you don't have a portal account, follow the instructions below.

If you don't have a portal account,you must call 507.457.7648 to register yourself in the Winona Health system before you are able to make an appointment. Be sure to mention that you are a Saint Mary's University student. They will ask for some basic information such as name, birthdate, address, and Social Security Number. Your SSN is to serve as a security question. If you don't have it, a different security question can be used. Once this is completed, you will receive an email with a direct link to make an account for the MyWH portal. This link is only active for 24 hours. You should receive this link immediately. If you don't, call back and ensure they heard your email address correctly. You can then schedule on the My Winona Health portal or through their app going forward. Instructions for how to navigate the portal once you reach that step are below.

For Winona Health portal instructions, click here.