Penn State extends vaccine mandate to all campuses — though some employees can test weekly instead
Penn State extended its employee mandate for the COVID vaccine across all campuses Thursday, although employees at some locations will be allowed to opt for weekly testing instead.
Prior to Thursday’s announcement, both University Park and eight commonwealth campuses — in addition to Penn State Health, Extension and the College of Medicine in Hershey — mandated the vaccine for their employees, to comply with an executive order that required all employees at sites with federal contracts to be vaccinated. (Penn State has about 1,000 such contracts worth more than $500 million.)
The remaining campuses were subject Thursday to a mandate from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which applies to employers with 100 or more employees. At those campuses, employees can opt for weekly COVID testing instead of the COVID vaccine. At the other campuses, based on federal guidelines, testing is not an option.
In other words, the commonwealth campuses where the vaccine is required, except in cases of medical or religious exemptions, include Altoona, Behrend, Berks, Brandywine, DuBois, Fayette, Harrisburg and Schuylkill.
According to the university, the deadline to be fully vaccinated has now been extended to Jan. 18, from the original date of Dec. 8. Because “full vaccination” doesn’t occur until two weeks after the final dose, that means employees must receive their first dose of Moderna no later than Dec. 7, Pfizer-BioNTech by Dec. 14 and Johnson & Johnson (single dose) on Jan. 4.
Employees must share proof they are vaccinated, and such instructions can be found on the university website.
According to the university’s COVID-19 Dashboard, the employee vaccination rate across all campuses stands at 85.1%. Citing studies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the vaccinated are 8 times less likely to be infected and 25 times less likely to experience hospitalization or death compared to the unvaccinated.
More information on religious exemptions can be found on Penn State’s website, while employees can apply for medical exemptions via an online request form. To schedule a vaccine appointment, go to vaccines.gov.
This story was originally published November 12, 2021 at 11:44 AM.
