The University of Iowa will begin offering limited, socially-distanced dine-in-seating at Burge, Catlett, and Hillcrest residence halls.

“Seating will be limited to allow for appropriate social distancing. Each market place can accommodate 200 to 300 students at one time with distancing measures in place,” a campus-wide update sent on Friday said. “All food stations in the market places will continue to be a ‘we serve’ model instead of a self-service model.”

Masks remain mandated at all times, and students are only permitted to remove them when eating during a dine-in reservation. 

Students are also still required to place a reservation if entering the dining hall. 

The university announced nine new COVID-19 cases among students and one from campus employees since Feb. 10. 

This brings the semester total for students to 2,966 cases and the employee total to 434. Two students are currently in self-isolation.

A video in the email update shared that UI pharmacy students will be administering vaccines during the spring semester. 

UI College of Pharmacy Clinical Assistant Professor Laura Knockel said the students completed a 20-hour national accredited education program to prepare for giving vaccinations. 

“Every fall, student pharmacists administer thousands of flu vaccinations. Our students are very excited to help administer COVID-19 vaccines and to end this pandemic,” Knockel said.  

Editor’s note: because of a university reporting error, the total number of cases is 2,966, not 2,996 as previously reported.