In response to accelerating COVID-19 case counts across the state and in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Penn State Hazleton announced Wednesday that both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals will be required to wear masks while indoors on campus.
                                 File photo

In response to accelerating COVID-19 case counts across the state and in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Penn State Hazleton announced Wednesday that both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals will be required to wear masks while indoors on campus.

File photo

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Penn State announced Wednesday that students, employees and faculty across all campuses — including Penn State Hazleton and Penn State Wilkes-Barre in Luzerne County — will be required to wear masks indoors regardless of their vaccination status.

“Penn State is taking this proactive measure to protect the health and safety of our campuses and help mitigate the spread of this virus within our community,” said Penn State president Eric J. Barron in a statement issued on Wednesday evening.

A statement issued from Penn State Hazleton affirmed the new guidelines, and added that the masking requirement would remain in effect for at least a week, or for one week after Luzerne County returns to a moderate (yellow) level of COVID-19 transmission.

“Pennsylvania is experiencing accelerating COVID-19 case counts across the state, and as of Aug. 4, Penn State Hazleton is in an area of substantial (orange) transmission,” reads the statement.

“The University will require all vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals — faculty, staff, students and visitors — at Penn State Hazleton to wear masks indoors, including in classrooms, meeting rooms and at any indoor events.”

The new guidelines go into effect starting 8 a.m. on Thursday morning and will cover all of Penn State’s campuses except for the College of Medicine, which already has its own requirements in place.

Penn State will provide an update when masking is no longer required.

All on-campus activities will continue as regularly scheduled with the new masking guidelines in place, and the guidelines will not effect or change the return-to-work process for faculty and staff.

The university stressed in the release that all Penn State employees and students are “strongly encouraged” to get vaccinated and to share their vaccination status with the school.

“The University’s stance is that everyone who can get a vaccine should do so as soon as possible to attain very high vaccination rates on all Penn State campuses,” reads the release.

Students and employees who have not informed the university that they have been fully vaccinated by August 9 will be subject to required testing during the fall semester.