Colorado State University’s indoor mask requirement will remain in effect until community COVID-19 “transmission levels fall below ‘substantial,'” CSU President Joyce McConnell announced in an email sent to the community Thursday night.

CSU’s Pandemic Preparedness Team will assess COVID-19 transmission each Friday and, once levels fall below the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “substantial” benchmark, the University “will adjust our mask requirement for campus and masking will be optional in all campus spaces,” the email said.

According to the CDC’s transmission tracking levels, counties with substantial transmission have “50-99 total cases per 100,000 population in the past seven days” or a positive test percentage of 8-9.99% coming from nucleic acid amplification tests, which is one of the tests that diagnoses the virus that causes COVID-19.

Once Larimer County transmission rates fall below these numbers, with 49 or fewer cases per 100,000 people in a seven-day period or positive case rate of less than 8%, CSU will drop the requirement for all people on University grounds to wear face coverings indoors.

This announcement comes just one day before Larimer County will end its indoor mask mandate at midnight on Friday.

“With this decision, we are being absolutely consistent with our practice as an institution of using rigorous, public-health-data-driven, inclusive decision-making in response to the COVID pandemic,” McConnell’s message said.

McConnell said the Pandemic Preparedness Team leaders met with leadership from the Associated Students of Colorado State University, the Teaching Continuity and Recovery Team, Faculty Council leadership, the Classified Personnel and Administrative Professional councils and Inclusive Excellence offices to “to hear perspectives about the mask mandate and what resources will serve our students, faculty and staff best as masking becomes optional.”

This decision has been approved by CSU System Chancellor Tony Frank, McConnell said.

CSU has reported 3,765 positive COVID-19 cases among students, faculty and staff since Jan. 1, and 207 in the last seven days (Feb. 3-9). Numbers come from what is reported on the covid.colostate.edu website, reflect tests done on students, faculty and staff by CSU, Larimer County and private physicians, and cases are not necessarily indicative of those on campus property.

The Pandemic Preparedness Team will release more information regarding public health guidances and masks on campus in the next few days.

Reach Serena Bettis at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @serenaroseb.