Unvaccinated students, staff and faculty at UBC Okanagan no longer have to submit to weekly COVID testing.
And unvaccinated students who didn't comply with weekly testing no longer face the threat of being ousted from in-person classes and activities.
The university, which also has a campus in Vancouver, quietly made the changes on March 1 after requiring such testing since September 2021 and threatening the possibility of student deregistration since Jan. 1.
While the programs were a big deal, it only applied to a small minority of students, faculty and staff because UBC has a 97% rate of double vaccination amongst the population.
UBC's turnaround was prompted by a Feb. 16 letter from Vancouver Coastal Health that recommended it doesn't make sense anymore to test the unvaccinated regularly or potentially ban students from in-person classes because the dominant Omicron variant, that is transmitted by both the vaccinated and unvaccinated, causes less serious illness, especially in young people.
"It's time to ease some of the restrictions that are no longer useful in preventing the spread of COVID-19," said the letter from Vancouver Coastal Health signed by chief medical health officer Dr. Patricia Daly.
The letter added that continued testing and-or banning students from in-person classes "may result in profound negative harms on their future health and wellbeing, by impacting future educational and career opportunities, and their mental health."
UBC Okanagan let students, faculty and staff know about the elimination of the rules via UBC Broadcast, an internal email and electronic communications system available to students, faculty and staff.
A printed notice was also posted in common areas for students, faculty and staff to see.
There was no news release or media announcement concerning the change.
UBC's decisions are part of the changing of the tide in how schools, businesses, institutions, venues and society are dealing with COVID now that the disease is morphing from a pandemic to endemic.
"The evolution of the virus and the presence of the (weaker and less harmful) Omicron variant now indicates that a different public health and safety approach should be taken," said the UBC Broadcast signed by UBC president Santa J. Ono and UBC Okanagan principal Lesley Cormack.
"The university will no longer require regular rapid testing or vaccine declarations, except as needed to comply with the relevant public health orders described below.
The orders that still require proof of vaccination include students in residence and students and employees who are based within health care settings.
In September 2021, UBC instituted the weekly rapid testing program for the unvaccinated.
On Jan. 1, the university made a further academic regulation that stipulated that unvaccinated students, who attended in-person classes, who failed to get tested weekly would be placed on 'academic hold.'
What that would have meant is noncompliant students would be deregistered from in-person courses and activities operated by UBC and have access to grades and transcripts blocked.
However, UBC and Vancouver Coastal Health still recommend people get double vaccinated and boosted to provide themselves and others with maximum protection.
