Mask mandates return to college campuses as COVID-19 flares

The last weeks of the university school year have been altered once again by COVID-19 as universities return mask warrantsswitch to online classes and reduce large meetings in response to increases in coronavirus infections.

Colleges in Washington, DC, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Texas have once again imposed a series of virus measures, with Howard University moving to remote learning amid an increase in cases in the United States. capital of the country.

This is the third consecutive academic year that has been turned upside down COVID-19[feminine]that is, future seniors have not yet experienced a normal college year.

“I think last summer it was all about saying, ‘Oh, that’s all. We’re nearing the end,'” recalled Nina Heller, a junior student at the American University of Washington DC, where administrators led a mask warrant about a month after lifting it. “And then that didn’t happen at all, and now we’re here in the summer again, and there’s no end.”

“The pandemic continues with us”

Mandates were largely eliminated following the spring break, as the number of cases dropped after an increase in the winter fueled by the omicron variant. But several Northeastern cities have seen an increase in cases and hospitalizations in recent weeks as sub-variant BA.2 of the omicron variant continues to spread rapidly across the U.S.

“As much as we’d like to move forward and think the pandemic is over, and I think we’d all like to see that happen right now, it’s an illusion,” said Anita Barkin, co-chair of a COVID-19. strength for the American College Health Association. “The pandemic is still with us.”

COVID-19 had been relieved so much at Williams College that the Massachusetts private school of liberal arts allowed teachers to decide if they required masks in their classes early last week. But a few days later, with the increase in cases, he reinstated an inner mask warrant, which was even stricter than had been established before.

“I think students really feel like the people they know are falling like flies,” said young Kitt Urdang, who has tested positive for half a dozen friends in recent days. “There has definitely been a lot more uncertainty than there has been on campus since COVID hit.”

Philadelphia recently regained its mask mandate, which leads the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University to re-demand them starting Monday. Although the city ended its term on Thursdaythe schools have not made any changes.

A quiet campus

In Washington, DC, the main campus of Howard University, affectionately called “The Hilltop” by students and students, was largely quiet this week, with many students taking classes and exams from home. The academic year is coming to a silent end, as the rising number of viruses has prompted administrators to abruptly return to online education.

The rate of COVID infection in the city more than doubled in April. In addition to the Americans, Georgetown and George Washington University also reinstated their inner mask mandates. But Howard is the only one who has strayed from face-to-face instruction. The spring semester ends on Friday, and the final exams for most students will begin next week. Administrators have promised an update on what this means for the May 7 launch ceremony.

“I don’t think people are very unhappy with the use of masks,” said Lia DeGroot, an elderly woman from George Washington who never took off her mask during the week her term was lifted at her school. “Of all the things the pandemic has altered, I think wearing masks is, you know, a relatively small thing. I think that’s the mindset that a lot of students have.”

Strong rise in cases

In nearby Baltimore, Maryland, Johns Hopkins University announced this month that it was testing all undergraduate students twice a week through Friday, with a sharp increase in cases. The school also said masks would be required not only in classrooms, but in places like common areas of the residence.

In Houston, Rice University announced earlier this month that students should resume the use of masks in classrooms, citing an increase in cases on campus. Major university parties were also canceled.

New Mexico State University adopted a different strategy, announcing Monday that all students on campus must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by July 1, ending the option to submit weekly tests as alternative.

One of the few counties still identified by the CDC as widespread is home to Syracuse University in New York, which announced Monday that it would again require masks in classrooms.

J. Michael Haynie, the school’s vice president of strategic initiatives and innovation, said in a letter that “it is important that we take reasonable steps to minimize the impact of COVID infections” with the end and the beginning. near.

The University of Rochester in upstate New York, the University of Connecticut, Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and Columbia University in New York City took a similar approach. Many, such as Columbia, noted that their surveillance testing programs found more cases.

While many students were eager to disguise themselves, complaints arose.

“We’re so tired of masks,” said Neeraj Sudhakar, a Columbia undergraduate student studying financial engineering. “We probably have a 99% vaccination rate, so right now I think we just have to move on with the pandemic and treat it as endemic instead of going back to what we’ve been doing for the last two years.”