Mandatory vaccination: critical to keeping KAUST safe

Dear KAUST Community,

Ongoing efforts to safeguard the KAUST community through vaccination have come a long way since the first doses were administered in KSA over six months ago. Vaccination has proven to be the single best tool for mitigating the spread of COVID-19 and so we turn to the second half of this year in a much stronger position.

Currently, 92% of our students, employees and dependents have been vaccinated with at least one dose. An additional two percent are immune by prior infection, providing 94% immunity according to the Tawakkalna app.

Furthermore, 100% of the service provider staff working in KAUST now meet the requirements for immunity by the Tawakkalna app (fully vaccinated, vaccinated with at least one dose, or immune by prior infection within the last six months) and over 90% of them are immune by at least one vaccination dose.

It is in this context that Saudi Arabia has confirmed that anyone entering government or private offices, anyone attending cultural, scientific, social or entertainment events, will be required to have the “Immune” by Tawakkalna status as of August 1, 2021.

Vaccination is critical to keeping our community safe moving forward. Therefore, we now require that all KAUST employees, students, and dependents must have the “Immune by Tawakkalna” status by August 1, with two notable exceptions:

1. Those under 18 are exempt until vaccines are widely available in KSA for this age group. We will announce any changes to this exemption with sufficient advance notice.
2. Newly-arriving international students, employees, and dependents that haven’t been able to be vaccinated in their home country are required to enter institutional quarantine at a government facility. Upon arrival at KAUST, they must follow all Keeping KAUST Safe guidelines and be tested on a weekly basis until their Iqama is received, at which point they must immediately get vaccinated.

Per recent Ministry of Health (MoH) guidance, those partially or fully vaccinated by non-KSA approved vaccines can now vaccinate using KSA-approved vaccines by waiting at least 20 days since their last dose of unapproved vaccine. Anyone in this category must be vaccinated to become “Immune” by Tawakkalna by August 1, 2021.

To ensure the safety of our community, Tawakkalna status will be checked at KAUST retail, recreation, classrooms, and in the workplace. Individuals will be held accountable to ensure this requirement has been met.

I urge you all to ensure that you take every opportunity over the coming weeks to ensure you are vaccinated so that we can all return to the coming semester confident that we are keeping KAUST safe.

Thank you,

Dr. Tony F. Chan
KAUST President
KC3 Chairman