Baylor vaccination rate soars above county rate ahead of semester start

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - Although Waco and McLennan County is experiencing its largest COVID-19 surge, the Waco-McLennan County Public Health District says its not worried about Baylor students worsening the spread.

This weekend more than 15,000 students will return to Waco as classes start Tuesday at Baylor amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.

The university briefly considered the idea of starting off the semester fully online but finally decided on an in-person semester with precautions like providing free tests, vaccines and free N95 masks to all faculty members.

“We really feel that the Baylor campus is the safest place for our students, faculty and staff to be,” according to Jason Cook, Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Baylor University.

“Baylor has done a really good job of setting up their testing programs, they’ve done a really good job of getting students vaccinated,” said Lashonda Malrey-Horne, the director of the Waco-McLennan County Public Health District.

In fact 80% of the Baylor campus is vaccinated, far ahead of the county where only 52 % of residents are fully vaccinated.

But in preparation for when COVID-19 cases do pop up on campus, Baylor is asking in-state students to have a quarantine plan while the university makes a plan for out of state students.

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