The Maui News

All 10 campuses in the University of Hawaii system will indefinitely suspend mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies for students and employees as of Saturday, UH announced.

Regular testing for COVID-19 will no longer be required of students and employees with approved vaccine exemptions, though testing will continue in the student residence halls until the end of the semester.

“The UH officers made the decision to suspend the policies based on guidance provided by the UH COVID-19 Health and Wellbeing Working Group, a team of UH medical and public health experts,” stated a systemwide email Wednesday signed by the UH officers, the leadership team with representation from the 10 campuses led by UH President David Lassner. “The move reflects the latest COVID-19 guidance from the state and federal government.”

Hawaii is preparing to end its indoor mask mandate, the Safe Travels program for domestic travelers and the vaccination requirement for government employees after Friday, Gov. David Ige announced earlier this month.

The latest UH COVID-19 guidelines take effect Saturday and include the following requirements:

• Face masks must be worn indoors in classrooms, shared laboratories, other instructional spaces and tightly confined educational spaces, such as advising offices and in campus venues when the number of attendees is close to maximum capacity or if high numbers of higher-risk people are expected to attend (required until May 13, the end of the spring 2022 semester). Instructors or presenters may remove their masks while teaching, provided that they maintain 6 feet of distance from others. Campus officials may further specify areas where face masks are required to enhance safety.

• Those returning to campus after quarantine or isolation must wear face masks around others in all settings for the remainder of the 10-day period.

• Anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 must stay home and isolate for at least five days, until they are fever free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and symptoms are improving.

• Full or up-to-date vaccination is needed for employees and students in specific UH programs or courses (i.e., medical, nursing, social work, dental hygiene, allied health, etc.) where they are embedded within partner institutions that require vaccination. Officers will determine which programs may require student, faculty or patient vaccination status.

UH strongly recommends staying home when sick, whether with COVID-19 or not, to recover and prevent community spread.

As of Saturday, UH also will no longer require:

• Daily COVID-19 health screening via the LumiSight UH health app.

• Face masks indoors, except as identified above.

• Face masks outdoors, including outdoor campus events.

• Visitors providing proof of vaccination or negative test results to access campus events.

• Uploading of negative tests for those students and employees with approved vaccine exemptions.

• Campuswide notification of positive COVID-19 cases reported on a UH campus.

“As we transition to personal responsibility for managing COVID-19 infections and exposures, individuals are strongly urged to report their cases/exposures to their designated campus official,” UH officers said in the email.

UH said it would continue to monitor conditions in Hawaii and could change its policies depending on the status of the pandemic.