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The latest news about the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 in Montana.

Montana Universities Won’t Track Student COVID-19 Vaccination Rates

Josh Burnham
/
MTPR

The Montana University System won’t track COVID-19 vaccinations at the campus level when students return for the fall semester.

Deputy Commissioner Brock Tessman said during a Board of Regents meeting Wednesday that the university system will have a sense of student immunization rates from campus vaccination centers.

“I think coming back for things like orientation, it’ll be fairly easy to see how many students, in general terms, are getting vaccinated,” Tessman says.

Tessman said the university system is incentivizing students to get vaccinated, including with free gift cards, but not requiring it.

More than 400 universities across the country are requiring students to be vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The list doesn’t include any schools in states neighboring Montana.

Kevin Trevellyan is Yellowstone Public Radio's Report for America statehouse reporter.

Copyright 2021 Yellowstone Public Radio

Kevin is a UM Journalism graduate student and reporter for MTPR.
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