COLUMBUS, Ohio — Capital University in Bexley, Ohio announced it is reinstating a mask requirement for the rest of the term, officials said Sunday.
What You Need To Know
- Capital University reinstates its mask requirement
- School officials cited an uptick in virus cases
- The university’s graduation protocols are forthcoming
The announcement makes the university an outlier among Ohio schools and universities, the vast majority of which have not required masks since the omicron wave subsided.
“Capital has experienced an increase in COVID cases over the last few weeks, with several positive cases reported this weekend,” officials said.
COVID-19 cases in Ohio have increased for three consecutive weeks, and Franklin County ranks in the top 10 of the state’s 88 counties for transmission rates.
The university said it will soon announce its COVID-19 protocols for graduation ceremonies, which are scheduled for the first week of May.
Officials encouraged students to take advantage of testing opportunities on campus Monday through Friday this week. Capital students were required to comply with a vaccine mandate in the fall.
Nationally, cases have increased by more than 50% in the last two weeks, a trend health officials attribute to the rise of a more infectious omicron subvariant, BA.2, and the lack of mask mandates in most parts of the country.
“I think it'll be very hard to get people to mask up again,” he said. “Society has tired of this whole pandemic.”