Emory University will start the next semester online as a precaution against the spread of COVID-19.
All undergraduate students as well as those in graduate level and professional courses are affected. Clinical and research activities, School of Medicine courses and other select activities will continue in person, President Gregory L. Fenves announced Tuesday.
The university is reacting to the rapid spread of the omicron variant, which has already caused havoc with airlines due to staff shortages. Georgia’s COVID-19 positive test rate in mid-December was about 5%, but has since increased to a rolling average of 23%, as of Monday.
In Georgia, the omicron surge is hitting metro Atlanta particular hard, according to state health data. Cobb, Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton counties reported single-day records for new confirmed and probable coronavirus infections within the past week.
Emory joins a small but growing list of colleges and universities across the country that will shift online, including Harvard in the Northeast, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the Midwest and Stanford and several University of California campuses on the West Coast.
Emory senior Bowei Deng, 22, anticipated the shift online. Before the semester’s end, he’d heard from friends at other colleges about impending shutdowns on their campuses. (Stanford announced on Dec. 16 that it planned to go online.)
“It wasn’t a surprise to me,” he said.
The neuroscience major didn’t book a flight home to China for the winter break because he volunteers in a campus lab that is doing COVID-19 genetic research. He figured it would remain open, and he didn’t want to risk infection while flying back.
Earlier this month, Emory announced that all employees, faculty and students will be required to get a COVID-19 booster shot over the next few weeks. The university will extend exemptions for students, faculty and employees who have previously received an exemption.
“With more than 97% of students, faculty, and staff currently vaccinated, we have kept our campus healthy,” Fenves said in a statement when the announcement was made.
Emory students can return to residence halls but are being encouraged to delay their return to campus.
Fenves acknowledged in his written statement that the sudden shift online is “inconvenient,” particularly for students with travel arrangements and faculty who planned for in-person coursework.
“But we must be adaptable during this surge so we can continue our important work—learning, teaching, creating, and discovering—in the face of this ever-evolving pandemic,” he wrote.
Staff writer J. Scott Trubey contributed to this report.
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