
STORRS, Conn. (WTIC News)—Across all five University of Connecticut campuses, a range of 79 to 90% of all students returning to campus for in-person instruction are fully or partially vaccinated, according to the UConn COVID-19 dashboard.
Of students who will be living at the Storrs campus, 94% are fully or partially vaccinated. At the Stamford campus, 88% of residential students are at least partially vaccinated, the data states.
Among all students, including the students who will not be living on campus but who will have at least one on-campus course, 90% of those at Storrs and 79% of those at Stamford are fully or partially vaccinated.
For the other regional campuses, which do not have student housing, the data shows that Avery Point has 84% of all students fully or partially vaccinated, Hartford has 80% and Waterbury has 80%.
With about two weeks left before the start of the fall semester, UConn Spokesperson Stephanie Reitz said those numbers are expected to increase since many vaccination documents and exemption requests are still being processed.
In July, the university received about 770 non-medical exemption requests, Reitz said. About 500 have so far been approved, she said, while the others are still being reviewed.
A lawsuit against UConn's student vaccination requirement is currently in progress, resulting in requests pending confirmation. However, some students who requested exemptions may need them, Reitz said.
"For instance, international students who may have thought they could not get the vaccine and would need an exemption, as opposed to not knowing at that time that they could get a vaccine as soon as they get to campus," Reitz said. "So, there is a population of people who put in the exemption request because they thought they had to as opposed to not wanting the vaccine."
Students who are exempt and unvaccinated will have to follow safety protocols when arriving onto campus. They will need to get COVID-19 tested a few days before arriving to campus and again upon arrival.
Then, students must participate in a modified five to seven day quarantine on campus before getting tested once again, kicking off their weekly surveillance testing for the semester, Reitz said.
Students who are fully remote, which Reitz said is "a relatively small" number, are not included in the numbers because they are not required to be vaccinated or to get an exemption.
The Storrs campus will be welcoming first-year students on Friday August 27. All other students will begin moving in on Saturday, August 28 and Sunday, August 29.