As students prepare to gather with friends, catch up on work and enjoy the spring weather, the University added another option to this weekend’s potential plans: getting a COVID vaccine on campus.
In a Monday email, Assistant Vice President of Student and Campus Life for Health and Wellbeing Sharon McMullen announced that students would be able to sign up to be vaccinated on campus April 23 — the first day of Cornell’s second set of Wellness Days.
Students who are interested in signing up for the clinic in Bartels Hall, which will be managed by Cayuga Health Systems and Tompkins County Health Department, must be registered as a Cornell student in Tompkins County Health Department’s COVID-19 Vaccine Registry. Students who have previously signed up do not need to do so again.
Selected students will receive an email beginning Tuesday afternoon with an invitation to sign up for an appointment. The University did not indicate how many doses would be available, but 35 percent of the campus population is already fully vaccinated, as of April 18.
The clinic will be administering the Moderna vaccine, which requires two doses. The email encouraged students to remain in Ithaca until May 25 — the day students would be scheduled to receive the second dose — but stated that even if students could not make that commitment, to sign up for the clinic anyway.
“If your schedule requires you to be outside of Tompkins County by May 25, you may still want to consider taking advantage of this opportunity to receive a first dose, as state and federal officials anticipate being able to ensure vaccine availability across the county by the end of May,” the email read.
Cornell joins Duke University, the University of Pennsylvania and Northwestern University to vaccinate its students on campus, after it announced on April 2 that it would require all students to be vaccinated in the fall semester.
The April 23 clinic is the first to administer vaccines on campus, and follows the University’s “College Student Vaccination Day” that was canceled after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration paused the distribution of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine — which was supposed to be administered at the event.
While the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is still being investigated for potential ties to concerning blood clots, the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have not been associated with this side effect.