York uni students start to head home as travel window opens

Thousands of university students in York are starting to make their way home for Christmas as the government's travel window opens.

Today (Thursday, 3 December) marks the start of the seven day period they're told they can return safely to their families for the festive period if they've had a negative covid test.

Both York Uni and St John Uni have been running covid-19 testing all week ahead of the so called 'travel window'.

Rapid covid-19 tests have been open to students from 30 November to 9 December, ahead of the 'travel window' in the fight against COVID 19.

These are:

• The tests are freely available for all staff and students
• The tests are only for people with NO symptoms
• Tests must be booked in advance
• Students will need to take two tests, 3 days apart
• Testing is voluntary to offer peace of mind before the suggested end of term ‘travel window’
• If a student receives a positive outcome as a result of this testing they will need to self-isolate at your current address for 10 days
• Visiting the test site is allowed under national lockdown regulations.

For more details on these, please visit the University of York and York St John University websites.

For students returning home for the holiday period, in line with this guidance, teaching will move online from Wednesday, 9 December.

Students can continue their learning online until the end of term on 11 December.

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• coronavirus
• travel window
• University