Villanova University has become the latest university in the Philadelphia area to require its students, faculty and staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by the 2021-22 school year.

All students and staff must be fully vaccinated by August 1st before returning to campus in the fall. Pastor Peter Donohue, the principal Said this week.

Students, faculty and staff need to provide vaccine documents to the school. International students who cannot meet the requirements will be vaccinated against COVID-19 when they return to campus this fall. Vaccine exemptions will only be granted for medical or religious reasons.

Fully vaccinated students and employees do not need to wear masks, undergo regular COVID-19 testing or self-quarantine, universities SayThose who are granted a COVID-19 vaccine exemption will be required to continue to comply with the school’s COVID-19 health and safety protocol.

Donohue said that compulsory full vaccinations for all students and employees will help the university “restore a more typical campus experience” and may lift most of the COVID-19 mitigation efforts.

Donohue said: “Requirement for vaccination allows for face-to-face guidance, a full set of extracurricular and service-related activities, dormitories and restaurants are full, and more typical Villanova experience can be restored.”

Other local schools that require students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before the fall semester include Payne and Drexel, and also Rutgers University, Rowan, Stockton, Caspian and Princeton.

Pennsylvania Rowan University is one of the universities in the Philadelphia area, and they also require employees to be fully vaccinated before returning to campus in the fall.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued its latest guidance last week, stating that employers can require employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to return to the office.

However, the agency stated that any COVID-19 vaccine authorization must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Civil Rights Act, and cited the ADA to require companies to keep certain health information confidential.

EEOC also stated that employers can provide incentives for employees to vaccinate, as long as they are not mandatory.

Penn Medicine said last month that it requires all health system employees and clinical staff to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by September 1.