Penn mandates vaccine for all staff, faculty and doctoral trainees

• By Jad Sleiman/WHYY

(Philadelphia) — The University of Pennsylvania announced Tuesday that all faculty, staff, and doctoral trainees must be fully vaccinated by Aug. 1.

The university had already mandated the COVID-19 vaccine for all students ahead of the fall semester, with certain religious or medical exemptions.

“We recognize that some individuals will choose not to obtain vaccines for medical and religious reasons, and some may choose not to disclose their vaccine status,” the release read. “Faculty, staff, and postdoctoral trainees who are not fully vaccinated will be required to continue to participate in daily symptom checks on PennOpen Pass and weekly Penn Cares screening testing, as well as to continue to wear masks indoors.”

The announcement comes ahead of the city’s planned June 2 lifting of all capacity restrictions.

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WHYY is the leading public media station serving the Philadelphia region, including Delaware, South Jersey and Pennsylvania. This story originally appeared on WHYY.org.