Employees

Update for employees and graduate students

Before the start of this term, we wrote to you to confirm the University’s COVID-19 health measures for the Fall term. Since then we have continued to monitor the latest data from Public Health Ontario and the Region of Waterloo and remain in communication with colleagues in public health to inform our plans for the health and safety of our campuses. 

Recently, we have seen increases in COVID-19 hospitalization locally, and there are emerging trends from test positivity and wastewater that suggest increasing levels of COVID in the community now and in the near future. Taken together with higher rates of seasonal flu and other viruses, these trends mean we need to act now to protect our the most vulnerable in our community and to minimize disruptions to the end of term exam season.

Today, we’re making the decision to suspend our mask requirement after June 30. In addition to the lifting of provincial and municipal mask requirements noted above, this decision is also consistent with a variety of indicators including campus data, case counts, test positivity rates, local hospitalization and wastewater data, and consulting public health guidance.

We’ve all seen the value of wearing a mask to help limit the spread of a variety of diseases from COVID-19 to the common cold. Wearing a mask is a good way to show you are being considerate of the people around you. Please respect the choices of others in our community who may wish to continue to wear a mask.

If you haven’t done so already, please make sure you keep your vaccination information current with Campus Checkin (https://campuscheckin.uwaterloo.ca).

Update for the UWaterloo Community

Earlier this week we sent you an update about health and safety at the University for the spring term. We have previously announced that our plans to relax some of our requirements at the start of the spring term on May 1 were based on public health conditions.