While the overall case count remains low, thousands of students — including 2,856 undergraduates in the College of Arts and Sciences — are at risk of receiving noncompliance red PennOpen Passes on Nov. 16 due to testing noncompliance.

The City of Philadelphia announced that the Health Department is working with vaccine providers to get children vaccinated in the same facilities as adults.

More than 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students received red PennOpen Passes for COVID-19 testing noncompliance two weeks ago.

The commentary analyzes how conspiracy theorists questioned the trustworthiness and motives of government agencies and officials to portray scientists and health experts as bad actors.

The registration holds will be placed on student accounts on Oct. 29, barring students from participating in the upcoming Advance Registration period, which begins on Nov. 1.

Students who have not received a COVID-19 test since Oct. 19 are in danger of receiving red passes and have until Oct. 30 to get tested.

The findings from the Annenberg researchers indicate that mandates work to improve vaccination rates among Americans.

The University requires that all vaccinated students receive at least one COVID-19 test every two weeks, and if they fail to do so, they will receive a red PennOpen Pass until they test negative.

Many first-year students have been sick with coughs, sore throats, congestion, and fatigue — but campus positivity rates for COVID-19 remain low.

The University also reported that 97% of faculty and staff and 96% of all students, both graduate and undergraduate, are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

The mandate now requires hospital and long term care facility workers and higher education faculty, students and staff to receive only their first vaccine dose by Oct. 15.

To mitigate the spread of COVID-19, the business school is requiring all first-year MBA classes and some second-year MBA classes to take place online through Oct. 3.

Between Sept. 19 and Sept. 25, 55 Penn community members tested positive for COVID-19 out of a total of 15,471 community members who received tests.

Senior Vice Dean of Medical Education Suzanne Rose led the ceremony, distributing the white coats and delivering remarks to the incoming students and their guests at the annual White Coat Ceremony. 

The COVID-19 test can detect small amounts of SARS-CoV-2 with sensitivity nearly as high as a PCR tests, which are considered "the gold standard" in the diagnostic community.

Students reported varying degrees of accommodation and a lack of clarity from professors about what accommodations or extensions they are entitled to. 

Wastewater monitoring can detect the virus two-to-three days prior to symptoms and can identify both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases.