Emory University announced that masks are optional on all shuttles as of Oct. 3. The new policy lifts the final mask mandate on campus outside of clinical and select research settings.
“We've been reviewing our community risk indicators, city of Atlanta policies and industry standards for public transit systems,” Chief Resilience Officer Amir St. Clair said. “Through that review process, we determined that we would move to mask optional on our shuttles.”
Shuttles returned to full capacity and began accommodating standing riders last May, although the University still required masks to ride.
The decision to lift the mask mandate on shuttles comes almost seven months after masks were made optional in most indoor spaces on campus last March. St. Clair noted that at the time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still required people to wear masks when on public transportation conveyances or on the premises of transportation hubs. The order was lifted on April 18 after a federal judge in Florida struck down the mask requirement.
However, St. Clair said the University evaluated the risk of the Emory community at the time and decided to continue requiring masks on its public transport system.
“As we did that evaluation, particularly knowing that our shuttles also serve our Emory Healthcare population and is a service that extends beyond just the University population, we took all those considerations into account and [they were] a large reason why shuttles remained mask-required until this past Monday,” St. Clair said.
Shuttle Drivers Mary West and Calvin Hundley both said that most people have still been following the mask requirements on shuttles for the past few months, despite some protocols being lifted earlier on campus.
“There’s been more masks than no masks, but some people took that option,” Hundley said.
Hundley, who was still wearing a mask while driving, said he does not believe the new mask optional policy will harm riders.
“Because we're getting away from COVID, I think that it is optional and by not wearing masks, it's putting no danger on anyone else,” Hundley said.
West, who was also wearing a mask at the time, said she does not mind the requirement being lifted.
“It doesn't matter to me, as long as I got mine,” West said.
Some students, including Yifei Zhang (25C), also expressed support of the University’s decision to make masks optional on shuttles.
“It's totally unnecessary because when you are in quarantine or you are in your classroom, you don't need to wear a mask,” Zhang said. “So it does not make sense to wear a mask on the bus.”
There have been 45 reported cases of COVID-19 among students and faculty and staff in the past 10 days, according to the University’s COVID-19 dashboard. This is a significant decrease compared to the beginning of the semester, when a 414 10-day case count was reported on Aug. 31.
COVID-19 cases increased during the winter months the past two years. St. Clair said he expects to likely see a similar pattern this year because the virus has a cyclical nature.
“We know that during the holiday periods there are more gatherings, there's more travel, there's more social interactions,” St. Clair said. “Those are all precursors to higher COVID transmission, and it'll also be the height of flu season, and so we'll have lots of different viruses that will be circulating at higher prevalence during the winter months.”
The flu virus is expected to be prevalent throughout the United States this winter after it ripped through the southern hemisphere during its June to September flu season, St. Clair noted. After low transmission in 2021, the influenza virus hit the southern hemisphere hard; Australia, for example, just reached the end of its worst flu season in five years, with 224,565 notifications of laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza reported to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System.
“We know that it has been a particularly challenging flu season in the southern hemisphere, and so we should anticipate that we may see a volatile flu season here as well this winter,” St. Clair said.
Students can best protect themselves by getting a flu vaccine, St. Clair said. Last year, all students, faculty and staff were required to get a flu shot. Although St. Clair noted that there is no requirement this year, he said Emory strongly recommends students, faculty and staff to follow public health guidance and receive their flu vaccinations. Students and employees working in a healthcare facility are required to “follow the guidance and vaccine recommendations of the facility in which they work.”
Even with the mask requirement being lifted in shuttles, there will still be protocols in place to manage COVID-19 on campus, St. Clair noted. The University will continue to enforce its notification requirements and isolation policy for students who test positive. Students who are exposed to COVID-19 will still have to wear a mask in public spaces for 10 days.
“What's really important to not lose sight of is that people will go mask optional, people may not wear a mask, because they have built up that repertoire of other tools in their tool belt that they're leaning on,” St. Clair said. “Testing regularly, staying home when they're sick, getting vaccinated, getting boosted, all of that is working in concert with the ability to maybe not wear masks.”
