Salisbury University President Charles Wight announced the campus’ face mask mandate may be revoked by the start of the spring semester during his monthly COVID-19 briefing Thursday.
Wight said SU’s University Health Team is “working closely” with the University System of Maryland COVID-19 Task Force on potential adjustments to the current campus-wide face mask requirement for the spring based on vaccination and COVID-19 case rates in the region.
“If we continue along our current track, I expect that the mask mandate might be lifted or relaxed in many areas of campus at the beginning of next year, with exceptions for places like classrooms and other gatherings where things might be a little more crowded than we’d like,” Wight said.
The mask requirement will remain in place through the remainder of the fall semester.
SU’s COVID-19 positivity rate has remained below 1% since banning all unvaccinated students, faculty and staff from campus in early September, with 93.5% of all on-campus individuals now fully vaccinated, according to the university’s coronavirus dashboard.
All other on-campus students, faculty and staff are either partially vaccinated or received exemptions to the USM’s vaccination mandate.
Wicomico County’s COVID-19 positivity rate of over 7% remains more than twice the rate of the state of Maryland, which currently sits at 3.4%, per the dashboard.
By JAKOB TODD
News editor
Featured image courtesy of Salisbury University Public Relations Office.
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