Fully vaccinated undergraduate students are no longer required to get tested weekly, according to a Monday email sent to the Brown community by Executive Vice President for Planning and Policy Russell Carey MA’06. Unvaccinated community members are still required to get tested twice weekly.
All students will remain enrolled in the testing program and can still take a test “if necessary for travel, concern about a potential exposure or other reasons.” Still, no fully vaccinated student “should take an optional test more than once a week.”
The decision comes after the University previously decided to make testing optional for employees, graduates and medical students, The Herald previously reported.
According to Carey, the decision was informed by consistently low numbers of positive COVID-19 tests on campus during the return to normal operations as well as the recent long weekend and Family Weekend, each of which could have brought a subsequent increase in positivity rates.
“We did not experience any increase in positivity related to the long weekend or Family Weekend, which were two events we were monitoring closely” Carey wrote. “Accordingly, we are in a position to further lower our levels of routine asymptomatic testing.”
All undergraduates, regardless of their vaccination status, will be required to test twice when they return from Thanksgiving break. Students will test on the first and fifth days of their arrival. This policy is mandatory for all undergraduate students, whether or not they remain on campus for the break, but is strongly encouraged for all community members.
