Five faculty members from UT Southwestern Medical Center are in quarantine in their homes after they were exposed Wednesday to someone at a medical conference who later tested positive for COVID-19.

In an email to the radiation oncology department of the medical center, which was obtained by The Dallas Morning News, Robert Timmerman, a professor in the department, said the exposure happened at a conference on the UTSW campus Wednesday morning. The person had a rapid test Wednesday after becoming ill and received the positive result Thursday.

Timmerman said the department consulted with infectious disease experts at the medical school, who said they don’t recommend the UTSW staff be tested for COVID-19 unless they start showing symptoms.

“Those exposed to the COVID+ person would not immediately shed the virus in the period after exposure,” he said in the email. “The virus must first incubate, which takes a few days. This is important because our doctors returned to the clinic after the tumor conference, interacted with staff, and saw patients. According to the experts, neither the staff or the patients seen are at meaningful risk for being infected.”

He also said that the department’s staff would no longer hold meetings of more than about five people, and that they are working on setting up virtual meetings going forward. He also said the department was working to secure more protective equipment for health care workers caring for patients.

Timmerman said the university will share at a town hall Friday a plan the medical school has developed for caring for patients that test positive for the virus.