How HBCUs Are Dealing with the Omicron Variant and Rising Coronavirus Cases

HBCUs are playing an important role in the country’s vaccine rollout, serving as vaccination sites and working to engender trust in the treatment from their communities. Howard University’s College of Medicine distributed vaccines to the D.C. community on Thursday, February 11, 2021. | Source: The Washington Post / Getty

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has hit society like a ton of bricks this winter and HBCUs are no exception.

Howard University has already pushed its Spring 2022 semester more than a week to try to combat the on-campus spread of Omicron following the holidays.

We have seen a concerning increase in percentage and the number of positive cases over the past three weeks. To protect our community, we are delaying the start of the semester to January 18th.

🗞: https://t.co/7w6uLAMopX pic.twitter.com/m9wN1fOmcn

— Howard University (@HowardU) December 28, 2021

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Many HBCUs, including Howard, have already made it mandatory for students to get vaccinated against COVID-19, but the rise of Omicron has forced these institutions to take more steps to ensure the safety of students, faculty and community members.

Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine and Spelman College will continue their strict COVID protocols for the upcoming semester. Morehouse has even shifted to online schooling to begin the 2022 Spring semester.

The Atlanta University Center institutions have been able to keep their COVID rates lower than many other universities in the state of Georgia.

Nashville HBCU @TSUEdu will delay instruction for a few weeks due to the #OmicronVariant of COVID-19. https://t.co/5sHoOXFQY8

— The College Crisis Initiative (C2i) (@C2Initiative) January 3, 2022

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Click here to read more.

SOURCE: Black America Web, Donovan Dooley