February 22 - Updates on COVID-19

Orange County has extended vaccine eligibility to UCI employees.

TODAY'S CAMPUS UPDATES

OC opens vaccinations to all UCI employees

Get ready to roll up your sleeve. The Orange County Health Care Agency has launched Phase 1B of its COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan, which extends eligibility for vaccinations to education workers, a category that includes all UCI employees. (Other categories in Phase 1B are food service, grocery and agricultural workers; emergency services; and childcare providers.) Because vaccine supplies are limited, UCI encourages employees to get shots through any available channel – whether it’s UCI, a pharmacy, a healthcare provider or a community-based site.

Need employment verification to get vaccinated?

If your selected vaccination site requires eligibility documents, please request an employment verification letter from the COVID Response Center at covid19@uci.edu. You can also download employment verification via UC Path: Log in to the UC Path portal. On the dashboard, click “Employee Actions.” Then click “Income and Taxes,” then “Verification of Employment.” At the bottom of the page, click “Generate Summary Report” and download the attachment. For more vaccine information, see the provost’s vaccination update.

New campus case*

One campus employee and no students tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend (Friday through Sunday). The number of active cases was 15. For more information, visit the UCI COVID-19 dashboard.

UCI COVID-19 NEWS AND EVENTS

UCI’s newest building officially debuts

The six-story Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building has officially gone live and UCI Magazine has details on this new chapter in UCI’s longstanding commitment to collaborative research.

UC NEWS 

UC President Drake discusses fall reopening

How things will look this fall depends on “the behavior of the country and [COVID-19] over these next few months, but we’re hoping to be able to get classes back together in a modified fashion,” UC President Michael Drake said Friday. Ditto for dorms.

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.

Costco begins offering vaccines

Warehouse retailer Costco has begun offering COVID-19 vaccinations at select locations in California. “Our pharmacies will be administering COVID-19 vaccines as soon as they are available, in accordance with CDC and state guidelines,” the retailer said.

Pandemic job losses caused 30,000 deaths, study says

UC San Francisco researchers estimate that last spring’s unemployment jump helped cause an additional 30,000 deaths among working-age U.S. adults over the past year.

Immigration detention centers expose state’s vaccine chaos

Who is responsible for vaccinating immigrants in California’s detention centers? Neither state officials nor federal agencies have taken responsibility. In the midst of the uncertainty, San Diego County sent vaccine doses to a local detention center. But San Bernardino County is awaiting instructions from state health officials on when detainees become eligible for shots. Because detainees are in federal custody, state officials aren’t sure who is responsible for vaccinations.

Why does COVID hit some nations harder than others?

As the virus ravaged wealthy nations, death rates in poorer countries remained surprisingly low. Epidemiologists cite several possible explanations, but remain puzzled by the often wide differences.

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.

Random and not-so-random acts of kindness

Today’s feel-good roundup includes Good Samaritans in Texas, a Louisiana stranger buying a basketball hoop for a boy who was shooting balls into a trash can, and prison inmates raising $32,000 for a student’s tuition.

#UCIconnected

If you have a shoutout, or if you’d like to share what you’ve been up to during the pandemic, send photos and/or words about your activities, workstation, volunteering, etc., 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.