MANSFIELD, Connecticut — Staff at all of UConn's campuses and UConn Health in Farmington will have to be vaccinated for the new school year.
Interim President Dr. Andrew Agwunobi announced the requirement. Students are already required to be vaccinated with some exemptions in place.
Employees must show evidence of vaccination by October 15th or request an exemption or deferral which would require them to be tested weekly, the school said.
UConn has about 9,800 full and part-time employees.
A federal lawsuit filed against UConn's vaccine mandate requiring all students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 was dismissed by a judge on Monday.
The university is requiring mandatory vaccines for most students in order to come back to school for the 2021-2022 school year. Its policy was challenged with a lawsuit.
The lawsuit argued, "imposing mandatory vaccinations as a condition for attending UConn violates their Fourth Amendment procedural due process." It went on to say it violated state and federal laws that give individuals an option to choose.
“The university is pleased with the court’s decision. Our student vaccination program continues to be very successful, and we look forward to reopening for the fall semester with our campuses as safe and healthy as possible," said UConn in a written statement.
UConn has already given more than 500 non-medical vaccine exemptions as of August 4.
UConn is not the only school being sued over its vaccine requirement. It was only last week that Supreme Court declined to hear the lawsuit over Indiana Univerisity's vaccine mandate. Justice Amy Coney Barret denied the challenge with no notes of dissent from the other judges.
Quinnipiac University recently announced students who fail to show proof of vaccination will be subjected to a weekly fine and other penalties.
In other efforts to protect students across the state, Gov. Ned Lamont announced Tuesday that K-12 students will be required to wear their masks for at least the first month of the school year. Lamont’s executive order requiring masks in schools is set to expire with the rest of his emergency executive powers on Sept. 30.
But Martin Looney, the Democratic president pro tempore of the state Senate, says lawmakers will meet next month to decide whether to extend those executive powers, possibly until the start of the next legislative session in February.
Last week, the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) announced its guidelines for student-athletes for this coming fall.
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