At least another handful of Bay Area universities will require students to receive booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine next year as the omicron variant continues to spread.
The California State University system announced on Wednesday morning it will require boosters on all 23 of its campuses, including San Francisco State, San Jose State, Sonoma State and California Maritime Academy in Vallejo, when classes resume in 2022. Santa Clara University, meanwhile, announced on Monday that boosters are mandatory for students "as soon as they are eligible."
The requirement applies to all students, unless they have a university-approved exemption.
California State University students will need to receive their booster dose by Feb. 28, 2022 or six months after becoming fully vaccinated if that date is later. Meanwhile, Santa Clara students will have to upload their booster status by March 17.
As of this November, CalMatters reported that 78% of San Francisco State students, 85% of San Jose State students, 92% of Sonoma State students and 96% of Maritime Academy students were fully vaccinated. Ninety-nine percent of Santa Clara undergraduate students, 99% of graduate students and 98% of staff and faculty were fully vaccinated as of October.
The five aforementioned colleges are the latest to implement additional vaccination requirements in light of the omicron variant, which research indicates is even more transmissible than the delta strain. Omicron has overtaken the delta variant as the most dominant strain in the U.S. less than a month after its American presence was first discovered in San Francisco, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Stanford University announced last week it was requiring booster shots and holding classes online for the first two weeks of the winter quarter, which begins on Jan. 3, 2022. The University of California reiterated on Tuesday it was requiring boosters, leaving the plan of how classes would be conducted up to each campus. A UC Berkeley spokesperson told KCBS Radio on Tuesday the university still plans to primarily hold in-person classes when instruction begins on Jan. 18.
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