March 31 - Updates on COVID-19

Since immunity to other coronaviruses is known to last one to three years, it’s expected that the COVID-19 vaccine will be annual, like the flu shot. However, more will be learned as time goes by. #SleevesUpUCI #UCIForward

TODAY'S CAMPUS UPDATES

Undergraduate activities

Now that Orange County has entered the orange tier, the approved list of undergraduate activities has been updated. Please have a look to see what has changed.

New campus cases*

Two student residents tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday. For more information, visit the UCI COVID-19 dashboard.

UCI COVID-19 NEWS AND EVENTS

UCI Libraries offers curbside pickup

In response to the pandemic closure of normal building operations, the UCI Libraries began a curbside pickup service to provide books from our collections into the hands of UCI students, faculty and staff. Materials from Langson Library, Science Library, Orange County and Southeast Asian Archive, and selected Multimedia Resources Center items can be requested.

UC NEWS

UC part of nationwide cyber attack

UC has learned that it, along with other universities, government agencies, and private companies throughout the country, was recently subject to a cybersecurity attack. The attack involves the use of Accellion, a vendor used by many organizations for secure file transfer, in which an unauthorized individual appears to have copied and transferred UC files by exploiting a vulnerability in Accellion’s file transfer service. Upon learning of the attack, UC immediately reported the incident to federal law enforcement, took measures to contain it, and began an investigation. At this time, we believe this attack only affected the Accellion system and did not compromise other UC systems or networks.

Five rules for protecting your security online

As UC works to contain and investigate these attacks, it’s more important than ever to follow these five best practices for cybersecurity whether you’re at home or in the office.

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.

California to close 2 mass vaccination sites in Oakland, L.A.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency supplies and administers as many as 7,500 doses per day each site — the Oakland Coliseum and California State University, Los Angeles. They were set up as pilot projects in February and were the first FEMA mass vaccination sites in the country. But as the eight-week pilot winds down, the sites will soon begin administering the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines before FEMA withdraws on April 11.

California may be headed toward fourth surge

At first glance, the data looks promising for avoiding one. California’s number of average daily coronavirus cases is down 16% over the past two weeks, falling to fewer than 3,000 cases a day. And COVID-19 hospitalizations in California are down 28% from two weeks ago. But experts and public health officials are increasingly alarmed that increases in cases in parts of the U.S. and Europe could eventually threaten California’s progress.

COVID-19 was third leading cause of death in U.S. last year

COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the United States last year, after heart disease and cancer, according to provisional data released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC found the U.S. death rate increased by 15.9% between 2019 and 2020.

Pfizer trial to vaccinate kids aged 12 to 15 in the U.S.

Results from Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 clinical trial in 12- to 15-year-olds means that age group in the U.S. could receive vaccines as soon as the fall. The vaccine was 100% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, the companies said, and was well tolerated.

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.

Love means getting vaccinated

In this PSA from the California Department of Public Health, moms across California urge families to show how much they care for each other by getting the vaccine when it’s their turn.

She publishes booklets in seven languages to help Asian Americans and others face hate crimes

A Korean American woman living in Los Angeles has created a hate crime booklet for Asian American seniors to prepare them in case they are racially targeted. Fearing for her parents’ safety, Lim in April 2020 put together a booklet, “How to Report a Hate Crime,” with information to guide her parents in case they ever found themselves in that situation. Lim published the booklet in English and translated it to Korean before she was swarmed with requests to translate it into other languages.

#UCIconnected

Katrine Whiteson, associate professor in the Department of Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, sent in her work on the “great bean stockpile”:

After the quarantine in March 2020 and the great bean-stockpile, I have been sprouting beans and lentils on my kitchen counter in university hills, and enjoying seeing the emerging sprouts. They are great in salad, or you can even grow them in the garden and harvest the next generation. I have also been giving lectures accompanied by UCI chef Jessica Van Roo promoting the importance of fiber in the diet, and the potential positive impact on the gut microbiome. Our next event is April 7 - learn about the microbiome and how to make lentil soup!

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.