By Erin Dickinson ’24, Staff Writer

Beginning Wednesday, masks will no longer be required in classrooms or laboratories on campus for those who are fully vaccinated, school officials announced in an email. 

The email, which went out on Tuesday, also said that students will be permitted to eat and drink in classrooms and Ward-Haffey Dining Hall is now open to all visitors.

A weekly COVID-19 Update email sent out to the St. John Fisher College campus community announced that “masks will be optional throughout campus, including classrooms and laboratories, for those who are fully vaccinated.” Masks will still be required in the Health and Wellness Center, and while riding campus shuttles. 

Additionally, students who are not yet fully vaccinated will be required to remain masked while on campus. 

This update comes one week after the announcement of the partial lift of the on-campus mask mandate and is reflective of both Center of Disease Control guidelines and the continued decrease of positive cases on campus.

According to the college, this decision is based on “a new set of metrics and community transmission level categories” provided by the CDC. 

“CDC looks at the combination of three metrics — new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 population in the past 7 days, the percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, and total new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in the past 7 days — to determine the COVID-19 community level. New COVID-19 admissions and the percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied represent the current potential for strain on the health system. Data on new cases acts as an early warning indicator of potential increases in health system strain in the event of a COVID-19 surge.”

The college still has a large supply of KN95 masks for those still wishing to remain masked. For more information on this mask supply, contact Safety and Security at (585) 385-8025 or visit their office in Haffey Hall.