Penn Will Require All Employees, Postdoctoral Trainees To Be Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19 By August
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- All University of Pennsylvania faculty, staff, and postdoctoral trainees will have to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Aug. 1, the university said Tuesday. This comes after Penn announced in April that all students would have to be fully vaccinated in order to return to campus this fall.
The Ivy League university said Tuesday over the next two weeks, it will begin the process to allow its employees and postdoctoral trainees to record their vaccination status confidentially.
Fully vaccinated staff and postdocs will need to enter their information by July 1, the university said. New hires and staff who are vaccinated after July 1 will have to provide the info as soon as they can.
"The single most important measure each of us can take to protect ourselves along with those on campus and in our surrounding communities is to get vaccinated against COVID-19," the university said in the announcement. "With well-grounded confidence in the safety, effectiveness, and broad availability of COVID-19 vaccines, we previously announced that all students are required to be vaccinated for the fall semester with exemptions provided only for medical and religious reasons."
Fully vaccinated Penn employees and postdoctoral trainees will be exempt from regular COVID-19 screening testing beginning on July 1, and those who get vaccinated after July 1 will then be exempt, the university said.
Penn said faculty and postdocs can be exempt from the vaccination for medical or religious reasons only, but they will be required to continue participating in daily COVID-19 symptoms checks and weekly screening testing in addition to wearing face masks indoors.
For more on Penn's announcement, click here.
