UPJ institutes mask mandate again due to high local COVID-19 levels

Sep. 1—University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown students, staff and faculty are wearing masks on campus again this week after Cambria County moved into the "high" transmission area for COVID-19.

"Whenever the infection level of a county where a campus is located is designated as 'high community level' by the CDC, masking is required indoors in all campus spaces," according to Pitt officials. "Whenever a campus' county is in medium or low community level, masking indoors is not required but recommended — with masking being strongly encouraged under medium community level."

These levels are updated weekly on Thursdays by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Email reminders will be sent out Thursday evenings whenever a campus community moves in or out of a high community level.

As of Thursday, Cambria's case rate for the past seven days was 227.36, CDC data show.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, because the community transmission is high, it's recommended that masks are worn indoors in public, individuals should be tested if they have symptoms and stay up to date on coronavirus vaccinations.

Additionally, current CDC guidelines state that quarantines are no longer needed if a person is exposed to COVID-19, regardless of vaccination status.

Pitt officials advise students and faculty to wear masks for 10 days around others indoors in this instance and get tested five days after an exposure or sooner if they develop symptoms.

If they're tested outside of the Student Health Services or MyHealth@Work, any positive results should be reported to the appropriate campus health service.

The mandatory testing procedure for unvaccinated individuals has been paused on campus this semester as well.

For more information, visit www.coronavirus.pitt.edu.