U Of T Now Says Students Will Need To Be Vaccinated To Play Sports & Other Activities

The university experience is filled with lectures and essays, but if you're looking to branch out and do more than study, you may need to be fully vaccinated.

The University of Toronto announced on July 29 that students, staff and faculty participating in activities deemed to carry a high risk of COVID-19 transmission will need to be fully vaccinated and "self-declare their vaccination status."

"Varsity sports, music instruction and educational placements are among the activities that may be considered high risk, requiring participants to have received a full course of vaccine. The list of activities that require vaccination may change or be updated, and individuals can apply for an exemption," reads the statement.

The University put out a statement earlier in July declaring that vaccinations would not be a requirement to attend campus. However, in order to live in residence, students will need to be vaccinated.

Will everyone have to self-declare their vaccination status?

Students and faculty returning to campus this fall will also be asked to self-declare their vaccination status on an anonymous online self-assessment log called UCheck.

"The anonymous, aggregate data on vaccination status, by campus, will be used to inform health and safety measures at the university," reads the statement.

The self-assessment will prompt users to answer whether they are fully vaccinated or not. To check yes users must be fully vaccinated for at least 14 days, and if you check no, you will be expected to take a rapid screening kit twice a week at home.

In order to come on-campus students, faculty and staff who are not fully vaccinated "will be expected to have a negative result within 72 hours before coming to campus."

"There's a multitude of reasons why people might be hesitant, so we're hoping to have a broad strategy of education to help bring people the right information and assist them," said Professor Sal Spadafora, special adviser to the president on COVID-19 and senior adviser to the dean of the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. "We're going to try to meet people where they are on vaccine availability and education, bridging the gap to help those who are hesitant and facilitate self-testing and monitoring for those who aren't vaccinated."

If students, staff or faculty test positive on their rapid screening kit, they are required to report it, confirm with a PCR test and self-isolate if needed.