Emory University on Thursday announced it was ending its COVID vaccine mandates.
The Atlanta-based institution, which neighbors the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stated in an email to the campus community it will “no longer require COVID-19 vaccinations for students, faculty and staff.”
The exception to that would be health sciences students, stated the email, which was posted on Twitter as well as reported on by the student newspaper the Emory Wheel.
Moreover, “Emory will no longer require students, faculty and staff to report COVID-19 positive tests or complete isolation clearance forms to return to campus,” the email stated.
The university’s announcement came shortly after one from the Biden administration in late January that the COVID public health emergency will expire in May.
At the same time, House Republicans passed a bill “to end the COVID-19 public health emergency, moving ahead with the legislation despite the Biden administration announcing one day earlier that the declaration would end in May,” The Hill reported.
“The legislation — titled the Pandemic is Over Act — passed in a 220-210 party-line vote.”
The Emory decision was billed as “amazing news” by the Twitter account based in Georgia and focused on healthcare issues that shared the campus memo.
Amazing news! Emory University just dropped Covid vaccine mandates for students, staff, faculty, and participants in other programs that use on-campus housing! They also won't require reporting of positive tests or isolation forms. pic.twitter.com/y6lngUkv7E
— Kelley K (@KelleyKga) February 10, 2023
The Emory Wheel reported the university “has required community members to receive the first booster vaccine since the start of the spring 2022 semester, although Emory never mandated the second booster vaccine.”
Emory also announced Thursday it is “lifting the COVID-19 vaccine requirements for minors and people participating in non-Emory programs who are staying overnight in on-campus housing,” the Wheel reported.
Interestingly, the announcement came on the heels of “61 positive COVID-19 cases reported among students, faculty and staff in the past 10 days, according to the University’s COVID-19 Dashboard. This is a 90.625% increase compared to the 32 cases reported a little over four months ago on Oct. 3,” the student newspaper reported.
MORE: Nationwide group fights ongoing COVID vaccine, booster mandates on college campuses
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