The university will require weekly COVID-19 testing for students, faculty and staff who are not fully vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, the university announced in an update Friday. 

Rather than randomly selecting a portion of unvaccinated Mountaineers for weekly testing as App State has been doing since the start of the school year, everyone who is unvaccinated must get tested weekly for COVID-19. 

“To gain a more complete picture of the spread of COVID-19 on campus, we will adjust our testing strategy, beginning next week,” Chancellor Sheri Everts announced in the university update. 

Everts said the university has no intention of moving online at this time. 

As of Sept. 3, 52% of students and 89% of employees are vaccinated against COVID-19. In the past week, 5% of COVID-19 tests have been positive. No members of the App State community are currently hospitalized due to COVID-19. 

The chancellor emphasized the importance of getting vaccinated, stating that those who are vaccinated have a significantly lower chance of getting sick, being hospitalized or dying. 

“As positivity rates and hospitalizations rise across the state, the key to managing the severity of the impact is the COVID vaccine,” Everts said. “The vaccine reduces the severity of the illness, lowers the stress on our medical system and allows the university, our community and our state to remain open and fully functional.”