The COVID-19 has lasted for a long time and still affects our daily life. Many university students are not allowed to leave school in China to avoid being infected.
Many university students in the United States thought they would get through the final weeks of the 2021-2022 school year without another COVID-19 restriction.
That is no longer the case for some.
Major universities in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Texas recently put pandemic restrictions back in place. Many are once again requiring face coverings.
In Washington, D.C., Howard University moved its classes back online.
At Rice University in Texas, leaders told students to cancel any large parties.
These and other rules come about three weeks before many universities hoped to hold graduation events without restrictions.
More than just masks
Other universities, such as Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, are asking students to take COVID-19 virus tests two times a week. At New Mexico State University, students are now required to have a COVID-19 vaccine by July 1 instead of showing a negative virus test each week.
Anita Barking is a leader of the COVID-19 task force for the American College Health Association. She said "the pandemic is still with us." She said that even if students would like it to be over, that is just "wishful thinking."
But many students are thinking that way.
Neeraj Sudhakar is working on an advanced degree in engineering at Columbia University in New York City. Sudhakar said most students there are vaccinated. The student said: "I think we just need to move on with the pandemic and treat it as endemic rather than going back to what we were doing the past two years."
