COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for Carleton University students, staff and faculty this fall

OTTAWA -

Carleton University says all students, faculty and staff must be fully vaccinated to access campus this fall.

Less than four weeks before the start of the 2021 fall semester, the Ottawa university announced COVID-19 vaccination will be mandatory for everyone returning to the campus.

"In light of the rising Delta variant and evolving public health advice, Carleton is implementing vaccination requirements for campus access for fall 2021," said Carleton University's COVID-19 lead Suzanne Blanchard in an email to the Carleton community.

"In order to be granted full access to campus, all members of the Carleton community—including all students, faculty, and staff— will be required to have received a full course of a Health Canada or World Health Organization approved vaccine, for at least 14 days."

Students who are not fully vaccinated will be required to undergo rapid testing to be allowed access to campus..

Carleton University follows the University of Ottawa, Queen's University in Kingston and St. Lawrence College in making COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for students, faculty and staff.  

Carleton University announced last week that COVID-19 vaccines would be mandatory for students living in residence, student athletes, and for students taking part in activities on campus that carry a greater risk of COVID-19 transmission, such as music performance.

Now, Carleton says all students, staff and faculty must disclose their COVID-19 vaccination status.

"Attestation of vaccination status will be mandatory. Individuals who cannot attest to being fully vaccinated will be required to undergo rapid testing in order to temporarily be allowed to access campus, and will be provided with information on vaccination and booking an appointment as rapidly as possible," said Carleton University.

"These measures are in line with public health recommendations and consistent with policies being implemented by a growing number of Ontario universities including Toronto, Ottawa and Waterloo."

More details on the COVID-19 vaccination requirements, including how to provide the mandatory attestation of vaccines, will be released shortly.

The University of Ottawa was the first university in Canada to make vaccines mandatory for students, faculty and staff returning to campus in September.

The University of Ottawa said on Tuesday that all students, faculty, staff and visitors must have at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Sept. 7 and must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 15 in order to set foot on campus.