Dear YNU students, faculties and administrative members

January 21, 2022
UMEHARA Izuru
President, Yokohama National University

With number of people infected with the novel coronavirus has been increasing rapidly nationwide, Kanagawa Prefecture became a target area for “semi-state of emergency COVID-19 measures” from January 21st. In response to this, Kanagawa Prefecture has also updated the “Basic Policy for Countermeasures against Coronavirus Infectious Diseases”. There is a strong sense of crisis about the rapid spread of infection by the highly infectious Omicron variants.

Thanks to everyone’s cooperation, no case of infections were confirmed at YNU for a long time, but the number of new cases has been increasing since the beginning of this year. Even if you are vaccinated twice, there still is a good chance to be infected. While the spread of infection within the campus and through classes has not been confirmed and most of the classes and research activities are conducted safely, new cases are found mainly during group dining outside the campus.

Under these circumstances, the “Action Plan to Prevent the Spread of the Novel Coronavirus” (ver.3.1) will maintain at stage 1.5 as before, and education and research activities will be conducted in-person style principally. For classes, please check the “YOKOHAMA National University Infection Prevention Guidelines for In-person Classes” (for students / teachers) and other notifications from each collage. For extracurricular activities, please refrain from participating in a high-risk activity (1. Activities which mainly involve grappling 2. Activities which involve physical contact 3. Activities which involve loud vocalizations and intense exhalation), moving in a group, and events and matches which include lodging as much as possible. Please continue to comply with the “Guidelines for Resuming Extracurricular Activities (Revised on February 1. 2021)” of YNU and other guidelines and notifications provided by event-related organizations.

Even against highly infectious Omicron variants, basic infection control such as wearing non-woven masks properly, hand washing, and avoiding the crowd does not change. However, please avoid group dining which you remove masks as this causes to be a high-risk of infection.

From now on, we will enter one of the most important time of the year facing promotion, completion, employment and examination. There is an existing risk which will impact not only yourself but also your families and friends. We ask that students, faculties and administrative members to thoroughly follow the basic infection control measures. Although unlikely, if you become infected or become a close contact person, please contact the Health Service Center at YNU.

While a long and difficult time continues, we would like to work together to overcome this crisis. The experience we undergo will not be a waste in a long run. Let’s do our best together while foreseeing how the future society ought to be.

Finally, policy mentioned in this notice may change later depending on the situation of COVID-19 or due to the requests from the central government or local government. Please pay attention to further information delivered through YNU website or other notices.