Looking out for the health and wellbeing of ourselves and our fellow Xaverians has been a critical part of StFX’s COVID-19 response. To this point, the university strongly encourages all StFX students and employees to receive two doses of COVID-19 vaccine in accordance with public health recommendations. While vaccines will not be mandatory to come to campus, they represent an important line of defence against the virus and its variant strains. If you have questions about vaccine safety or effectiveness, we encourage you to consult this information produced by public health officials with the Government of Canada.
We recognize that not all students will have received the vaccine (whether just their second dose or even their first) before coming to StFX, either by choice or by circumstance. Decisions regarding quarantine requirements and other health and safety protocols for fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated, and non-vaccinated students coming from outside of Atlantic Canada will be made by Nova Scotia Public Health officials over the coming weeks. StFX will keep students and their families informed as we learn more.
Decisions in Nova Scotia about vaccine availability and rollout fall to the provincial government. The government has signalled that they anticipate making the COVID-19 vaccine available to students from other provinces, but discussion on how, when, and where this will happen are still underway. We commit to keeping the StFX community informed as we learn more information from the provincial government. In the meantime, students who have the ability to receive both doses of vaccine before coming to StFX are strongly encouraged to do so.
StFX recognizes that most regions in Canada enjoy a certain level or privilege with regard to vaccine access compared to many countries around the world. To this point, we also recognize that many of our international students will not have had access to the vaccine or may come from a region that uses a different vaccine than the ones currently approved for use in Canada. StFX is waiting to learn more from our national and provincial counterparts and will update international students as soon as key information is received.