Dear Temple community,

In recognition of Public Health Thank You Day, I wanted to take a moment to recognize the gargantuan effort that went into ensuring that Temple University came into compliance with the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

As of today, over 97% (40,800 individuals) of the Temple community is fully vaccinated. Another approximately 2.5% has an approved medical or religious exemption.

The mandate was announced just three months ago on Aug. 13, and since then, the entire community has rallied around this cause to help keep the Temple and Philadelphia communities healthy and safe. There is no understating the significance of this.

We’re thankful to the front-line health workers, especially the Student and Employee Health staff, who have spent months administering thousands of COVID-19 tests and vaccines. We applaud the COVID-19 Steering Committee for guiding us through this challenging time. But, most importantly, we thank all of you.

Even with a mandate in place, vaccine compliance is not easy. All of you stepped up and came together to help keep this community safe.

The pandemic is not over. Cases continue to rise here in Philadelphia, and that’s why Temple’s Steering Committee continues to meet several times a week.

But campus looks familiar again. Even more importantly, the Temple community is together again. You have yourselves to thank for that.

Sincerely,

Mark Denys
Senior Director, Health Services