The Jacobs blog

Summer 2023 COVID Mitigation

As always, we are committed to the health and safety of our Jacobs Camp Community.  Our approach in maintaining a healthy and safe community in Summer 2023 represents a significant shift from the COVID mitigation and response from last year. Please see more information below: 

• COVID Vaccination  The primary COVID vaccination series (2 doses) are required for all staff and participants who are eligible in accordance with the recommendations of the AAP and the CDC. 
• Bivalent boosters are very strongly recommended, but are not required for campers or staff. Bivalent boosters became available on September 2, 2022, for people aged 12 years and older, on October 12, 2022 for children 5-11 years old, and on December 9, 2022, for children aged 6 months–4 years who completed the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine primary series.
• There are exceptions to the URJ vaccination policy, and they are rare. Please complete this form and URJ or Jacobs Camp will respond to your request.
• Pre-camp Behavior There will be updated pre-arrival behavior recommendations for the week preceding your arrival at camp. We will encourage everyone arriving at camp to reduce potential virus exposures.
• Pre-camp Testing  As we get closer to the summer, we will share more information about any pre-arrival COVID testing requirement. 
• In-Camp COVID Mitigation With a fully vaccinated camp community, we are positioning ourselves to move through the summer with lower incidents of COVID and milder illness if it occurs.  We will not employ surveillance testing or masking as part of this summer’s standard COVID mitigation strategies.  We will continue to encourage healthy habits for healthy communities, including hand hygiene and maintaining a clean environment. We will ONLY test community members displaying multiple COVID symptoms, and will only require a camper to be picked up from camp if their illness requires more care than our camp medical team can provide. 

You can visit this website for a full description of the URJ Covid Approach for Summer 2023, the URJ Vaccination Policy, and the URJ 2023 URJ Medical Advisory Team (MAT).