Santa Cruz County announced Wednesday that it rescinded its indoor face mask requirement. This is based on the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) county data tracker , which shows that the county has now moved to the yellow tier of moderate disease transmission. This is a welcome sign of progress for those in Santa Cruz County and our university community.
Indoor face covering requirements remain in effect at UCSC. Face coverings, in addition to the vaccinations and our testing program, continue to be a key element of our campus mitigation plan. Because of the shift in the Santa Cruz County requirement, we want to clarify for our campus community that face coverings continue to be required while inside campus facilities, including classrooms. This is true regardless of vaccination status. Individuals are not required to wear face coverings when alone in single occupant rooms or offices with closed doors not open to the public or when in a personal residence or private residence hall room, though masks are required in shared spaces such as residence hall hallways, group bathrooms and lounges.
The state face covering guidelines also apply. Currently, the state requires a face covering, regardless of vaccination status, when accessing public transit, healthcare settings, adult and senior care facilities, indoor spaces in K-12 schools, childcare and other youth settings, state and local correctional facilities and detention centers, homeless shelters, emergency shelters, and cooling centers. The state also requires unvaccinated individuals to wear face masks in indoor public places, such as retail, restaurants, theaters, family entertainment centers, meetings, and state and local government offices that serve the public, and recommends the same for vaccinated individuals.
For more information on the campus COVID-19 mitigations and guidelines, you can check out the Slug Strong website at https://slugstrong.ucsc.edu . You can also link to the Slug Strong site from the ucsc.edu homepage via the ribbon at the top. One specific resource we want to point out to you is the Slug Strong booklet, which summarizes the campus COVID-19 response plan.
Thank you for your continued vigilance in supporting the health and wellness of our Slug community.
