Mitigation testing will still be required for people who have been vaccinated for COVID-19, Dr. Aaron Carroll, IU’s director of mitigation testing, said in a webinar Wednesday morning.
Carroll said there is some concern among medical experts that some vaccinated individuals could still transmit COVID-19 to others. Testing everyone who has been vaccinated will help IU experts learn more about this possibility.
IU students and faculty can report to IU whether they have been vaccinated in an online form.
In a weekly dashboard update Wednesday, IU announced a 0.39% positivity rate from the previous week’s mitigation testing. This is one of the lowest rates since testing began on-campus.
Related: [UPDATE JAN. 20: IU’s COVID-19 mitigation positivity rate among lowest recorded as students return]
“We saw incredibly low rates among our faculty and staff,” Carroll said.
When asked about the possibility of delaying students’ return to campus next month, Carroll said IU’s ongoing COVID-19 monitoring makes him confident students will return as scheduled.
“Things on-campus are looking not only good, but better than they did in the fall,” Carroll said.
Carroll said IU is watching the new, more viral strain of COVID-19 and believes IU’s current safety precautions can sufficiently protect students.
