January 8 - Updates on COVID-19

TODAY'S CAMPUS UPDATES

Vaccine update

With news of the COVID-19 vaccinations making national headlines, we’ve received many questions and comments about immunizations on campus. Here is an update from Interim Provost Hal Stern.

Vaccine informational videos

Here are a couple of YouTube videos with general information about the COVID-19 vaccine:

This one from earlier this week called, Surgeon General Jerome Adams Answers FAQs on the COVID-19 Vaccine, and
This one from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, called Tell Me More: Vaccine Safety, from a few weeks ago.

New campus cases*

Seven new cases were reported yesterday - six students and one employee. This brings the total active case count to 122. Please visit the dashboard for more information on case counts.

UCI COVID-19 NEWS AND EVENTS

Students publish book about life under quarantine

Patience and Pandemic is a collection of photography, essays and poetry solicited from Anteaters last summer. The self-published book is available on Amazon.

UC NEWS

Travel updates for 2021

Despite the many challenges of 2020’s global pandemic impacting travel, the Central Travel Office is approaching the new year with exciting initiatives and optimism that global travel will stabilize.

GENERAL COVID-19 NEWS

This section curates noteworthy coronavirus news, trends and opinions. No endorsement by UCI is implied. Note: Some news sites require subscriptions to read articles. The UCI Libraries offer free subscriptions to The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and OC Register for students, faculty and staff.

WHO approves delaying time between coronavirus vaccine doses

Experts at the World Health Organization on Friday approved delaying the times between doses of Pfizer and BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine. The organization’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunization published guidance stating that the interval between doses “may be extended up to 42 days (6 weeks), on the basis of currently available clinical trial data.”

In counties where university classes were in person, Covid-19 cases rose 56%

Counties where large colleges and universities opened for in-person classes in the fall suffered a significant rise in the incidence of Covid-19, according to a new study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

HOPE, INSPIRATION, LAUGHTER

Amid the heartbreaking loss of life and economic hardship wrought by the coronavirus, we recognize the need for stories of kindness, hope, courage and humor.

Wearing clothes, talking to people and other simple 2021 goals

The usual New Year’s resolutions -- exercise more, spend less time doomscrolling on social media and more time reading, go to bed earlier to get beauty rest -- feel like a giant pile of irrelevance after this year. It’s also helpful, though, to look ahead, to hope and dream that 2021 might return us to some semblance of normalcy.

#UCIconnected

What have you been up to during the pandemic? Send photos and/or words about your activities, workstation, volunteering or academic adventures to marketing@uci.edu or post on social media with the #UCIconnected hashtag.

EXPOSURE NOTIFICATION

* Potential workplace exposure: UCI provides this notification of a potential workplace COVID-19 exposure. Employees and subcontractors who were in these locations on the dates listed may have been exposed to the coronavirus. You may be entitled to various benefits under applicable federal and state laws and University-specific policies and agreements. The full notification is available on the UCI Forward site. If you have been identified as a close contact to a COVID-19 case, the UCI Contact Tracing Program will contact you and provide additional direction.