Duke orders COVID masks in campus buildings. Will UNC system, other schools follow?
Students, employees and visitors must mask up before entering Duke University buildings beginning Friday to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Duke announced the change Wednesday, citing rising cases, hospitalizations and deaths in North Carolina attributed to the prevalence of the Delta variant and lagging vaccination rates in the state.
Masks will not be required in campus housing, Duke said, because of significantly lower exposure risk there.
“While we know this is a disappointing turn,” Provost Sally Kornbluth and other officials said in a letter, “we make this move now based on the latest recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Duke’s own infectious disease experts in hopes of containing potential outbreaks that may limit our ability to continue other activities during the fall semester.”
The CDC on Tuesday recommended that people resume wearing masks indoors under certain circumstances, citing the spread of the Delta variant and findings that vaccinated people who get the variant can spread it. That makes it more contagious than other virus strains, which vaccinated people can get but are less likely to transmit.
In the past month, Duke said, it has seen a steady rise in the number of cases of the Delta variant on campus among unvaccinated and vaccinated people, though it noted the greatest threat for severe illness is among those not vaccinated.
“The key to ending this pandemic is getting everyone vaccinated,” the letter said. “We implore anyone who has not yet been vaccinated to do so at your earliest opportunity to help protect yourself and your loved ones. Too many have suffered and continue to suffer the effects of this disease. Duke stands ready and available to help answer questions or concerns and to vaccinate every member of our community.
Other universities in the Triangle and across the state have been following CDC guidance to develop policies about returning to dorms, classrooms and public spaces on their campuses. Most have not yet announced changes that might be made as a result of the CDC’s new recommendations.
Fall semester begins in August.
UNC, NC State campuses
The UNC System has more than 250,000 students on 17 campuses, including UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State University and N.C. Central University. Students and employees in the schools have been encouraged, but not required, to vaccinate against COVID-19.
Each campus crafts its own policies but must at least follow CDC guidance for face coverings and other community standards.
Earlier this year, the three area UNC campuses lifted the requirement to mask outdoors, but still required masks inside most buildings, regardless of vaccination status.
UNC-Chapel Hill’s rules allow the removal of face masks in private offices, dorm rooms, suites and apartments and when eating, drinking or exercising. Vaccinated faculty may remove masks while teaching if they keep at least three feet of distance from others. At UNC-CH, unvaccinated students must get tested weekly and voluntary asymptomatic testing will be available for all students, faculty and staff.
N.C. State’s rules require face coverings to be worn inside classrooms and laboratories and in designated areas such as health services and the veterinary hospital, regardless of vaccination status. NCSU said the requirement will be revisited after the first three weeks of the fall semester. For vaccinated people, masks are not required in other indoor spaces at the university under current rules.
N.C. Central University’s rules require face coverings to be worn in classrooms, lecture halls and other instructional areas. To encourage more students, faculty and staff to get vaccinated, NCCU and N.C. Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, playing off their longtime rivalry, have launched the Eagle-Aggie Crush COVID Competition from July 1 to Sept. 17. The campus with the most members vaccinated will get a trophy and bragging rights at the Sept. 25 Eagle-Aggie football game on the N.C. A&T campus.
At Shaw University, all students, staff and faculty must wear masks indoors, a school spokesman said, and those who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated must wear masks outdoors and observe social-distancing guidelines. Fully vaccinated people don’t have to wear masks outside or social distance on the Shaw campus.
Meredith College announced in July that the school expected to require face coverings in classrooms, common areas of all buildings and other spaces as needed, “until our vaccination rate reaches a safe level.” Later, the school said, the mandate might be lifted for those who have been vaccinated. Others would need to continue to mask.
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