Indiana University joined Monroe County and a slew of other universities today in reinstating a mask mandate.
IU’s Chief Health Officer Aaron Carroll said despite increasing COVID-19 rates and variants, the university will enter the fall semester safer than it’s ever been during the pandemic because of a high vaccination rate.
Read: Monroe County Reinstates Mask Mandate Indoors, IU Follows Suit Inside Campus Buildings
Despite his confidence in vaccines, he said IU recognizes local COVID response.
“We are recognizing local mandates that occur, so we are making this change and going to reevaluate as we move forward, as we see fit, how things progress," he said. "But I would not read this as any loss of confidence in how things are going.”
? Beginning tomorrow, August 5, all IU students, faculty, staff, and visitors (regardless of vaccine status) will need to wear a mask indoors on all IU campuses. This guidance is based on recommendations released by the CDC and local officials. More: https://t.co/cjmmgNgkUq pic.twitter.com/6uAnfY1BXH — Indiana University (@IndianaUniv) August 4, 2021
He said the fall semester will be business as usual, aside from the mask mandate and surveillance testing, and testing won’t take place at the same frequency as last year.
IU hasn’t implemented any new social distancing requirements.
“Certainly there’s no recommendation that vaccinated people should be distancing, and there’s really no recommendations that say unvaccinated people shouldn’t, but we’re implementing new mask mandates at the moment which align with that. So those are the only changes we’re making right now.”
He added people should be respectful of other people’s comfort and safety levels given their individual risk and should take precautions you would during flu season.
