UConn to require masks again, beginning Monday

STORRS — The University of Connecticut is reinstating its mask requirement after a rise in both state and university COVID cases, school officials announced Friday afternoon.

Masks will be required in all indoor instructional settings, such as classrooms, labs, studios, rehearsal rooms and clinics, as well as work spaces and indoor events with more than 100 people, school officials Carl Lejuez, the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, and Eleanor JB Daugherty, the dean of students and associate vice president of student affairs, said in a letter to students.

The requirement is effective Monday and applies to the Storrs and regional campuses, including Stamford. The policy will remain through the end of the semester and final exams, Lejuez and Daugherty said.

“The goal of this decision is to protect health on our campuses and to help ensure that the remaining weeks of the semester and UConn’s commencement ceremonies can be conducted in-person,” Lejuez and Daugherty said. “A widespread outbreak that overwhelms university health services and available isolation space could potentially disrupt both.”

The university said physical distancing will not be required. Catering and dining guidance is unchanged and will apply to upcoming events and awards ceremonies.

The school sited a “substantial rise in COVID-19 positivity rates both in the state of Connecticut and on UConn’s Storrs campus and the potential risk this poses to the remainder of the in-person semester and commencement.”

As of Friday, the state’s seven-day positivity rate stood at 6.5 percent with almost 4,000 new cases. Some 161 people are hospitalized with the virus, 44 more than Thursday, according to Gov. Ned Lamont.

The university relaxed its masking requirements in March, and more so earlier this month, when the state’s COVID-19 positivity rate was “consistently low at about 2 percent,” Lejuez and Daugherty said. The number of positive cases among students was also consistently low, he added.

Over the past week, Lejuez and Daugherty said there have been about 150 new positive cases both onand off-campus.

“UConn’s classrooms and workspaces remain extremely safe; resuming the masking requirement for these spaces during a time of rising infection rates further enhances that level of safety,” Lejuez and Daugherty said.