Following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recent COVID-19 recommendations, Rollins College announced this morning that students, faculty, and visitors on campus must wear a face covering while inside buildings, regardless of their vaccination status. Effective as of July 29 Rollins will reinstate a mandatory mask requirement indoors, including inside of classrooms and other meeting spaces until further notice.
According to the college, students will be required to eat food outdoors but are able to sip drinks with straws indoors so long as masks are worn. Previously, Rollins allowed patrons on campus to go without a mask under certain conditions, however, Rollins retracted that protocol in a recent email sent by Provost Susan Singer.
“We previously provided an exception that stated if you regularly work with a group of 2 to 5 individuals, and everyone has been fully vaccinated and is willing to share that information, your group may work together without masks,” Provost Singer wrote. “With this new guidance, we are temporarily retracting approval for these small group, maskless meetings, even for fully vaccinated individuals.”
Rollins previously shared that if 80 percent of the campus is fully vaccinated by September 3, the college would not be required to wear masks indoors throughout the school year. According to Rollins, the current state of cases in Orange County will also suspend that plan.
“This week the Centers for Disease Control issued updated guidelines regarding mask guidance, including that fully vaccinated people wear a mask in public indoor settings in areas of substantial or high transmission,” Provost Singer said. “This announcement coincides with rising cases of COVID-19 infections in Orange County and the increasing prevalence of the Delta variant.”
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