BC's research universities work to implement a program of rapid testing and vaccine status self-declaration
- President Kevin Hall
Dear UVic community,
We know that some of you are nervous about the rising COVID-19 case numbers and we want to assure you that UVic is committed to the health and safety of our community. Thank you for your patience while we have been in discussions about the best way to move forward on the question of vaccination for students, staff and faculty at UVic.
I am happy to share with you that we are working with our partners at BC’s research universities to offer additional measures for educational activities beyond those covered by the provincial proof of vaccine program, including rapid testing as an option for our community members who have not yet been vaccinated against COVID-19, or who choose not to disclose their vaccine status.
There are still many moving pieces and details to be finalized but we wanted to inform our community as soon as we could. This program will give students, staff and faculty who will be attending on-campus activities the choice to:
- confidentially and securely declare their status as being fully vaccinated against COVID-19, or
- participate in periodic rapid testing until able to be fully vaccinated.
As you can imagine, this is a significant undertaking. In the coming days we will be working to develop a platform and process to manage your confidential data. We will also discuss the implementation of these measures with our faculty and staff associations and unions, as well as our student societies.
These plans are part of our commitment to the health and safety of our community and to a successful fall term and we will share further details about this exciting next step for our return to campus as soon as possible.
Alongside the BC Vaccine Card and mandatory indoor masking PHO orders from earlier this week, we believe this program will give students, staff and faculty the confidence needed for a full return to in-person campus activities.
I appreciate the feedback we have received during the past few weeks. It has been extremely helpful to our team as we worked together with the Ministry and the PHO to develop an approach that works for BC universities.
If you haven’t already, please fill out the COVID-19 Vaccination Status Survey to help us plan our vaccination and testing capacity. It will only take one minute!
Thank you,
Kevin
Kevin Hall, PhD
President and Vice-Chancellor