Safe reopening of university campuses is possible with COVID-19 vaccination

TL;DR

This study uses an agent-based model to evaluate COVID-19 transmission on a university campus, showing that high vaccination coverage can enable safe reopening without masks, but lower coverage may require additional measures.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed agent-based SEIR model tailored for a university setting to assess reopening strategies amid COVID-19.

Findings

Over 80% vaccine coverage enables safe reopening.

100% vaccination may eliminate the need for masks.

Lower coverage (<70%) leads to high infection risk.

Abstract

We construct an agent-based SEIR model to simulate COVID-19 spread at a 16000-student mostly non-residential urban university during the Fall 2021 Semester. We find that mRNA vaccine coverage above 80% makes it possible to safely reopen to in-person instruction. If vaccine coverage is 100%, then our model indicates that facemask use is not necessary. Our simulations with vaccine coverage below 70% exhibit a right-skew for total infections over the semester, which suggests that high levels of infection are not exceedingly rare with campus social connections the main transmission route. Less effective vaccines or incidence of new variants may require additional intervention such as screening testing to reopen safely.