LSU will no longer require students and employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. 
In an email sent to students Thursday, LSU President William F. Tate advised that LSU “strongly recommends” students to arrive on campus fully vaccinated for the Fall 2022 semester. 
When asked for more information, LSU spokesman Ernie Ballard said in a written statement: 
“Vaccination is strongly recommended..  Employees are also strongly recommended to be vaccinated. The Louisiana Department of Health no longer requires the state’s day care, K-12 students and college students to get the COVID-19 vaccine starting in the 2022-23 school year.”  
Ballard would not say whether LSU had changed its policy on the COVID vaccine due to the LDH changing its policy and would not immediately explain why LSU was no longer requiring the COVID-19 vaccine. 
LDH announced the end to its requirement that day care facilities and schools require vaccinations on May 18.
Ballard said the LSU Health & Medical Advisory Committee is monitoring COVID on campus. The committee, made up of experts in medicine, epidemiology and virology, is tasked with making COVID mitigation recommendations to the university. 
In the email to students, Tate said that free COVID vaccines boosters and tests will still be available at the Student Health Center. 
Tate also asked that students “continue to use good judgment, and to be courteous to those around you who may be more at-risk than you are.” 
LSU implemented a COVID vaccine mandate in August 2021 after the Pfizer vaccine received full FDA approval for those 18 and older. That recommendation came amid the Delta surge. 
The university has not updated its COVID reporting dashboard since the end of the spring semester. The dashboard previously detailed the number of COVID cases among students, faculty and staff.
The Louisiana Department of Health reports that there have been over 3,000 new cases of COVID-19 since Wednesday. 
Health experts believe that this is a conservative estimate, as many COVID tests are now administered at home, not in clinics that report data to the state. 
East Baton Rouge Parish is classified by the LDH as “medium risk” for COVID-19.