CHEYENNE (WNE) — Masks will be required indoors, including inside vehicles, for Laramie County Community College employees due to a recent surge in COVID-19 cases across the county and a lack of initiative from staff to report their vaccination status.

The requirements will stay in place until one of two conditions are met.

Masks will return to a recommendation for faculty when Laramie County COVID-19 transmission risk levels lower to at least moderate. The county is currently at the highest risk level.

The other condition is when LCCC verifies at least 80% of its regular, benefited faculty is fully vaccinated. As of Thursday, 56% of full-time employees have reported being vaccinated, but this percentage is greatly impacted by the fact only 214 out of the 364 have reported their status.

In order to reverse the mask mandate, at least 291 employees will need to verify they are fully vaccinated.

“We want our faculty and staff to feel safe and be safe, whether they are vaccinated or not,” LCCC President Joe Schaffer said. “And so we know that two things are going to help them do that: vaccination and mask wearing.”

Schaffer said the decision to update protocols was made in solidarity with educational partners at the K-12 level and the University of Wyoming. 

Although employees will be required to mask up, students will still only have a strong recommendation from school officials to wear a mask.