Phases for Resuming On-Campus Activity
University operations are substantially back to normal, and based on the high vaccination and booster rates within our community and improvements in public health conditions.
Consistent with Maryland’s Roadmap to Recovery, the university established three phases to guide progress throughout the pandemic and toward reopening.
Johns Hopkins University is currently in Phase 3 of its reopening plan.
Phase 1 – Resuming Low-Risk Activities
- Continue to comply with strict physical distancing and appropriate masking requirements
- Testing and contact tracing of symptomatic students and employees
Examples of activities during this phase
- Resumption of research with strict distancing practices, including the use of staggered shifts
- Most instruction remains online/remote
- Limited classroom instruction (e.g., 10-person seminars can resume, with physical distancing and masking)
- Limited operation of campus facilities, including libraries
- Limited transportation options
Phase 2 – Resuming Medium-Risk Activities
- Continued reliance on strict physical distancing, frequent handwashing, and appropriate masking requirements.
- Testing and contact investigation and analysis of all symptomatic students and employees, and routine testing of asymptomatic individuals at a rate similar or better than the national, state, and local efforts.
Examples of activities during this phase
- More programs begin to resume in-person (low-density, and always with an online option)
- Graduate instruction and research labs continue with low density (six-foot distancing, and with masking)
- Permission for undergraduates to participate in on-campus research, subject to the decision by individual Principal Investigators and incorporation into their Return to Research plans.
- Limited residential housing (single rooms only) and dining (“grab and go” and/or limited seating based on public health guidance)
Phase 3 – Resuming Higher-Risk Activities
Requires widely available vaccine, effective therapeutics, and/or substantial immunity among community
Examples of activities during this phase
- Instruction in large lecture halls without strict distancing
- Unmodified residential and dining activities for those who have been vaccinated
- Unrestricted outdoor events; indoor events with some capacity limitations
- Physical distancing requirements lifted (though distancing is still required for unvaccinated individuals while eating indoors)
- Full transportation options
- Return from remote work for all employees
- Unrestricted travel
