BATON ROUGE - LSU announced Tuesday it is lifting its indoor mask mandate, a COVID safety precaution that's been in place since last summer. 

A letter sent out to students and faculty Tuesday confirmed the school was ending its campus-wide mandate effective immediately. The university had opted to keep its masking requirement in place for the past several weeks despite the statewide mandate ending last month. 

Read the full statement from President William Tate below. 

Dear Students, Faculty and Staff,

Upon the recommendation of our Health and Medical Advisory Committee, which consists of medical doctors, epidemiologists, engineers and biomedical researchers from across the state, we have decided to lift the indoor mask mandate on our Baton Rouge campus and end restrictions for on-campus events, effective immediately.

Let me first say this would not be possible without the cooperation of the entire LSU community. The vast majority of you chose to be vaccinated in numbers rarely seen at other universities, and you were diligent in adhering to the protocols we put in place to ensure the health and safety of our university family.

I want to add that we are moving forward with confidence, but with caution. While we are encouraged by the low number of cases we have seen this fall, and the overall success of our COVID policies and protocols, the pandemic is still a fluid situation. We will continue to carefully monitor trends, and these protocols are subject to change if transmission patterns, number of cases, or positivity rates in the Baton Rouge area change significantly. The health and safety of our campus community remains our highest priority.

Quarantine protocols will remain unchanged, wastewater testing will remain in place, and testing of unvaccinated individuals will continue. More information about what to expect in the spring semester will be coming soon.

The Health and Medical Advisory Committee also continues to recommend vaccines and boosters for those who meet the criteria outlined by the Louisiana Department of Health. Booster shots and vaccines from all three manufacturers are available for students and employees at the Student Health Center. Testing, vaccines and boosters are also available at other campus locations. The Student Health Center also has flu shots available for students, and since cases of the flu are on the rise, we recommend the flu shot to avoid being sick during finals or over the holidays.

As the holidays approach, please continue to use caution. It is still important to wear masks at group gatherings, and to stay home if you are sick. Remember that children under 5 years old still cannot get vaccinated and are at risk, and those who have certain health conditions may be at risk even if they are vaccinated.

I want to thank you all for your cooperation throughout the pandemic. We have worked together, kept our case count very low, and protected the most vulnerable among us. Please continue to exercise caution and good judgment so that we can keep taking positive steps forward.