University of Oregon Announces COVID Booster Shot Requirement for Students & Staff Members

One or two-dose vaccines will no longer suffice for students and staff of the University of Oregon (UO) to attend in-person activities at the facility, the president of this university, Michael Schill, has announced.

President Schill shared the news in a letter posted on Monday, according to which students, faculty, and staff members are encouraged to get the COVID-19 booster shot as soon as possible, as the number of positive cases with the new Coronavirus variant, Omicron are on the rise, Erudera.com reports.

“Boosters are the next step in the evolving public health strategy in which we have adapted and responded as a community during the pandemic. During winter term, we will also continue to rely on our layered health strategies such as wearing masks, testing protocols, and conducting case management,” he said, as the further details on booster shot deadlines are yet to be determined and announced.

While the University of Oregon is the only public university to declare a booster requirement so far, six other public universities have announced their requirements of full vaccinations for those on the campus.

The decision follows statements issued by the state’s governor, Kate Brown, and health authorities, for Oregon residents to get their third shots immediately.

According to state health authorities, Oregonians are three weeks away from a new wave of hospitalizations that is expected to be witnessed by mid-January.

“By the time we reach a peak, we do unfortunately expect the number of hospitalized Oregonians could eclipse the number from the delta (variant) surge in September,” the Data Scientist at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), Peter Graven, said, stressing that the situation isn’t clear as Omicron is still a new and not thoroughly studied strain of COVID-19.

The first case with the Omicron variant in the United States was announced on December 1, and since then, more than 40 states individually have identified more positive cases. In addition, three cases of Omicron were detected in Oregon from December 7 to 9, with two of those being residents of Washington County and one of Multnomah County.

Previously, the University of Michigan (U-M) announced that students and employees at three campuses (Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint) are required to get a COVID-19 booster shot during the winter semester of 2022 in an effort to mitigate the spread of the Coronavirus cases in the season to come.

Except for booster shots, the university has advised community members to wear a face-covering while indoors and, if possible, carry out COVID-19 tests before leaving campus, in addition to self-isolating if any symptoms related to the virus occur.