Fresno State among California colleges to require COVID-19 vaccinations this fall

California State University and the University of California announced Thursday that the COVID-19 vaccine will be required of anyone on campus as soon as the shots are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The requirement would go into effect as early as the fall 2021 semester for the CSU, according to officials from the 23-campus system.

Faculty, staff, and students who are accessing campus facilities will be required to be immunized “upon full approval of one or more vaccines by the (FDA), as well as adequate availability of the fully approved vaccines.”

“Together, the CSU and UC enroll and employ more than one million students and employees across 33 major university campuses, so this is the most comprehensive and consequential university plan for COVID-19 vaccines in the country,” said CSU Chancellor Joseph I. Castro.

Students or employees can seek an exemption on medical or religious grounds, officials said.

Both the UC and CSU already have several immunization requirements, but university leaders had previously said they could not require vaccines that hadn’t received FDA approval. The FDA has only issued emergency use authorization for the COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic.

Other colleges in the county have begun to announce the same requirement for fall, including several in California.

This story was originally published April 22, 2021 at 1:45 PM.