Keith Taylor, Ph.D., president of Gannon University, announced today the reinstatement of a mask mandate ahead of the start of the fall 2021 semester.

The announcement comes slightly over a month after Taylor announced the lifting of the mask mandate on Gannon’s campuses on June 24.

The mandate requires masks to be worn indoors on Gannon’s campus, a move which Taylor said reflects the climbing rates of COVID-19 cases in the communities surrounding Gannon’s Erie and Ruskin campuses.

“We will monitor our regional environments surrounding both campuses as we always do and continue to make adjustments as the conditions relative to the virus change,” he said in a statement.

In the same statement, Taylor reminded the Gannon community that all other COVID-19 related restrictions have been lifted, including physical social distancing measures, temperature checks and capacity limits.

Students are still expected to monitor their health, stay at home if they are feeling ill and reach out to Gannon’s Health Center via the LiveSafe app to communicate their illness. Additionally, students are being asked to accept Gannon’s COVID-19 Acknowledgement and Testing Consent forms on Tuesday.

COVID-19 testing will still be a requirement for those who are unvaccinated or who have not reported their vaccination status to Gannon’s Health Center. Testing for these Gannon community members will occur at least once every two weeks.

For more updates and Gannon’s full COVID-19 mitigation efforts, visit update.gannon.edu.

MADELINE BRUCE

[email protected]