Cal Poly students are currently still expected to wear masks on campus despite less restrictive CDC guidelines on indoor and outdoor gatherings for fully vaccinated people.
According to updated CDC guidelines from April 27, fully vaccinated people can gather indoors unmasked with other fully vaccinated people and be unmasked outdoors except in crowds.
A person is considered to be fully vaccinated two weeks after their final dose of the vaccine.
Despite new CDC guidelines, mask-wearing is still required in California until Gov. Gavin Newsom changes the state’s mask mandate.
Due to a university presidential order enacted at on Jan. 4, Cal Poly students are required to wear a face covering when on university property or participating in university events. This policy has yet to change to align with the new CDC guidance.
“These discussions will happen shortly at the university level, but we will need to wait for the official announcement from California Department of Public Health before we can implement any changes related to this,” University Spokesperson Matt Lazier said in an email.
CDC guidelines state that people are expected to follow their specific workplace guidelines.
“Campuses continue to develop campus-specific plans in conjunction with their local public health agency,” California State University (CSU) Spokesperson Hazel Kelly said in an email.
Another new guideline is that, unless they exhibit symptoms or live in a group setting, a fully vaccinated person who has been around someone with COVID-19 does not need to get tested or stay away from others.
History junior Alejandro Ruiz, who is fully vaccinated, said he is excited to see progress in COVID-19 restrictions. However, Ruiz said he thinks wearing masks should still be a part of the norm until the pandemic is contained on an international level.
“It should be more of a norm to still go with more restrictive guidelines for the perpetuation of the ideal healthy citizen,” Ruiz said.
The CDC still encourages fully vaccinated people to wear a mask in indoor public settings and when gathering indoors with unvaccinated people or those who are high risk to COVID-19.
Domestic and international travel guidelines have also decreased for fully vaccinated individuals.
As of May 6, fully vaccinated students will be exempt from the Cal Poly COVID-19 testing program if they upload their vaccine card to their portal, according to a campus-wide email.
Students are expected to still wear a mask — especially indoors — stay six feet apart, avoid large groups, wash their hands and fill out their daily COVID-19 symptom screener.