The San Diego Community College District announced on Feb. 15 that beginning in fall 2022 all students who attend in-person classes will be required to have received a COVID-19 booster shot.

In an email sent by SDCCD the district wrote “to better protect our campus community and allow for continued in-person learning and services” all eligible students would be required to provide documentation proving they had received a booster shot by Aug. 12. 

The district encouraged those not yet eligible to make plans to get one as soon as they are, which is five months after a two-dose regimen of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, and two months after a single-dose regimen of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. 

Students who do not provide proof of having received a booster shot by the August deadline will be dropped from their fall 2022 in-person classes, the district added.

They also wrote that the district’s mask policy, which requires all individuals regardless of vaccination status to wear face coverings while on SDCCD campuses, will remain unchanged in spring, despite California’s statewide mask mandate expiring on Feb. 15.

This latest development follows a January announcement by the district that in-person instruction would be “limited primarily” to fully vaccinated students. The district attributed the January change to the surge in COVID-19 cases in the region due to the Omicron variant.

A number of regional colleges have instituted similar changes in recent months, including the University of California San Diego, which required students to be fully vaccinated, or have a medical exemption on file to take in-person classes during the spring semester.

“To remain ‘fully vaccinated,’ students and campus employees are required to receive all recommended booster doses within 30 days (15 days for health care employees) of becoming eligible,” the university’s website reads.

Southwestern College wrote in a January announcement that in order to attend in-person classes all students must present proof of being fully vaccinated and those eligible for booster shots must have received them.

San Diego State University announced in December that all students and faculty would need to be fully vaccinated to attend spring in-person classes. They also required students who have not received a booster shot to test negative for COVID-19 at least every five days.

The Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District also required students to provide proof of having been fully vaccinated to attend in-person classes during the spring semester but did not require booster shots.