UVA has been successful in having majority of students vaccinated for COVID-19 for the 2021-2022 academic year. They've also implemented a mask mandate for the first few weeks of classes. Unvaccinated students are required to get weekly tests. However, breakthrough cases are still occurring amongst vaccinated individuals. Without monitoring COVID cases through prevalence testing for all students, the University cannot conduct all necessary contact tracing unless vaccinated students voluntarily get tested for COVID-19. Asymptomatic, presymptomatic, or mild symptomatic individuals may not get a COVID-19 test early enough or at all, leading to more exposures around Grounds during their infectious periods. 

Long COVID, hospitalization, and death remain a threat to vaccinated individuals (though they are at less risk) and unvaccinated individuals, including immunocompromised community members and children of staff and faculty members. Recent outbreaks amongst highly vaccinated student populations such as at Rice University in Houston, Texas and Duke University in Durham, North Carolina give reason to believe prevalence testing is still necessary for a safe semester in person. Both universities are continuing surveillance testing among their student populations for all students, not just unvaccinated students. Stanford University is another example of a university with a highly vaccinated student population that is continuing their prevalence testing during the fall semester. 

UVA students, faculty, and staff are enthusiastic about returning to Grounds, but everyone wants a safe semester doing so. Continued saliva screenings in some capacity for all would help with detection of infections and contact tracing and thus allow us to have safer classrooms and less community spread of COVID-19. Thank you for your consideration of this.