Quinnipiac University located in Hamden, in New Haven County, Connecticut, announced that it will be fining students who do not receive a vaccine, as well as exempting students who miss COVID-19 testing. Those in violation of vaccination policies will also lose access to the school’s campus network and wi-fi.
Officials said that students who fail to receive a COVID-19 vaccine will be fined up to $2,275 for the semester, and unvaccinated students who fail to submit to weekly testing will be subject to fines.
Weekly fines will start at $100 per week for the unvaccinated students, with increases of $25 after every two weeks, up to a maximum of $200 weekly. Fines will cease once a student uploads a vaccination record to the school's database to confirm the shots were received.
Students, faculty, and staff at Quinnipiac must be vaccinated before the start of the fall semester. Vaccination records were supposed to be submitted by Sunday, Aug. 1, though hundreds of students missed the deadline, the school announced in an email released this week.
Those not in compliance by Tuesday, Sept. 14 will begin to face punishments. Students who do receive one dose of a two-dose vaccination by Wednesday, Aug. 25 will not be charged as long as they are fully vaccinated by Sept. 14.
Students must isolate for 10 days if they test positive for COVID-19 regardless of their vaccination status, as per Quinnipiac protocols. However, vaccinated students don’t have to quarantine if they are a confirmed contact of a positive case unless they are symptomatic.
Fees and penalties will be waived for students who have received one dose of a two-dose vaccine by Aug. 25, and unvaccinated students must still upload a negative PCR test within five days of returning to campus.
“Our goal is to protect the health of our entire university community,” the school wrote in an email released this week. “In order to accomplish this, we must know if you have been vaccinated.”
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