11/09/2021
By Steve O’Riordan

With the second half of the Fall semester well underway, I wanted to provide an update on the status of our COVID-19 risk reduction measures and our plans for the final weeks of the calendar year.

We continue our multilayered approach to campus safety and health measures, which includes vaccinations, face coverings, daily symptom checking polices, ventilation and surveillance testing for community members with exemptions who are unvaccinated.

This approach has helped ensure our low levels of infection with only 68 cases of COVID-19 reported to the university by campus community members or discovered through surveillance testing this semester.

Given the ongoing recommendation from state and federal public health agencies, UMass Lowell will extend our indoor face covering mandate through Friday, Jan. 7 and will plan to re-evaluate conditions prior to the start of spring semester classes.

With vaccination rates across the commonwealth continuing to rise now that additional children are eligible, we are hopeful that we will be able to begin to relax some measures, including mandatory face coverings, in the new year.

I know all of us had hoped the pandemic would be further behind us by now, but with vaccine booster shots increasingly available, new anti-viral treatments going into production and vaccines approved for younger children, we’re closer than ever to reducing the impact of COVID-19 on our daily lives.

Thank you for all you have done to help keep each other safe and keep up the good work as we finalize this semester.