March 4 - Updates on COVID-19

CAMPUS SNAPSHOT

Ring Road. Photo by Steve Zylius/UCI

TODAY'S CAMPUS UPDATES

Tales from the lockdown

As the pandemic’s one-year anniversary approaches, we’d like to hear your stories. Did you find a silver lining in the shutdowns? Did you take on a new hobby, grapple with loss, reach a personal epiphany, fall in (or out of) love, figure out creative ways to battle isolation? What’s your most memorable story from the COVID era? Please send memories and/or photos you’d like us to consider publishing to marketing@uci.edu or post on social media with the #UCIconnected hashtag. We’ll begin sharing your experiences here on March 11.

No new campus cases*

For the second time this week, no students or campus employees tested positive for COVID-19 during the previous 24 hours. But experts stress that the pandemic isn’t over and vigilance is still necessary. Keep up the good work. For more information, visit the UCI COVID-19 dashboard.

UCI COVID-19 NEWS AND EVENTS

UCI celebrates Women’s History Month

In honor of the occasion, UCI News shares personal stories of faculty, staff, students, administrators and alumnae who are striving to make a difference in the world.

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.

COVID death rate 10x higher in nations with pervasive obesity

Nearly 90% of coronavirus deaths happened in countries where most of the population was overweight, according to a new study. Increased body weight was the second greatest predictor of hospitalization and risk of death after old age, the report noted. In the U.S., almost 75% of the population is overweight or obese.

California to reserve 40% of vaccine for disadvantaged areas

In a major shift, California will now earmark 40% of its COVID vaccines to residents in the most disadvantaged areas. The move is intended to both slow the spread of coronavirus and speed up reopening the economy. After another 400,000 doses are administered to people who live in hard-hit areas — which could happen in the next two weeks — the state will relax the rules for counties to exit the restrictive purple tier.

California’s MyTurn vaccine system riddled with flaws, officials say

The shortcomings make it difficult for counties to reserve appointments for targeted groups, local officials complain.

Teachers union boss slammed for taking daughter to in-person preschool

A Berkeley teachers union president who said it’s unsafe to reopen public schools because young kids don’t keep their masks on came under fire this week after revelations that his 2-year-old daughter attends a private, in-person preschool.

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.

Satire: Man-eating variants and mask-free Texans

Humor writers at the Onion and Babylon Bee had a field day with this week’s virus news. The satirical headlines include:

#UCIconnected

With support from UCI Student Affairs, student Karishma Muthukumar, who is UCI’s Dalai Lama scholar and a Barnes & Noble College Scholar, led a campuswide call for letters of support to UCI students. The initiative was part of The All-truism project, and more letters can be found on Instagram. All-truism (“we can all be true”) is a new project supported by the Barnes & Noble Scholarship that aims to create connections through community, compassion and the creative arts.

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.