December 10 - Updates on COVID-19

Field of dreams - for 2021. Photo by Steve Zylius/UCI

TODAY’S CAMPUS UPDATES

Six new cases

Two students and four campus employees tested positive for COVID on Wednesday. That brought the number of active campus cases to 60 (34 students, 26 employees), five times higher than the total on Nov. 17 and nearly double the count from a week ago. For more information, visit the UCI COVID-19 dashboard.

How to fight COVID with your phone

CA Notify, the state’s new anti-virus app, sends you an alert if you were in close contact with someone who later tests positive for COVID-19. Your privacy is fully protected, but the app lets you know if you’ve been exposed to someone who is infected.

UCI COVID-19 NEWS AND EVENT

Study: People more likely to pick up prescriptions at automated kiosks

Ever see long lines at the pharmacy counter and give up on a medication? A studyby UCI and UC San Diego found that patients using an automated kiosk in their workplace had better prescription pickup rates without sacrificing instruction from pharmacists.

Upcoming events

Bioengineering for COVID-19, Tuesday, 11 a.m.

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.

Newsom reverses order that closed playgrounds

The change to the governor’s stay-at-home order follows a backlash from legislators, parents and health experts. “There hasn’t been a single case from a playground,” said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease expert at UC San Francisco. After the state reversed its stance, L.A. County followed suit.

L.A. restaurants win court battle over outdoor dining

The county health director acted “arbitrarily” and didn’t prove the danger to the public when she banned outdoor dining, a judge ruled in overturning the restriction. But that doesn’t mean restaurants can reopen, because a state order is also in effect.

Cal State to reopen all campuses next fall

The decision comes after the state university system went remote for the entire 2020-21 school year.

To handle COVID overflow, Costa Mesa center reopens

The Fairview Development Center will operate as a field hospital to free up bed space at other medical centers in Orange County.

Four counties ask to secede from SoCal stay-at-home order

A trio of Central Coast counties (Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo) asked state officials for permission to break off from the Southern California stay-at-home order and create their own regional group. In similar fashion, Orange Countysupervisors asked for local control to escape the “one-size-fits-all” approach to handling the surge in cases.

5 legislators dine outside despite surge

The state Assembly members ate together at a Sacramento restaurant. When questioned by a journalist about the multi-household meal, Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian responded by asking, “Can we not have dinner?”

We had the vaccine all along?

Moderna designed its COVID vaccine in mid-January, more than a week before the first confirmed case in the U.S. “Could things have moved faster from design to deployment? Given the grim prospects for winter, it is tempting to wonder,” observes New York magazine.

California records most virus deaths in a single day

On Tuesday, California recorded 219 COVID-19 deaths, eclipsing the previous single-day death toll of 214 on July 31, according to data compiled by The Los Angeles Times. “The latest figure may be a harbinger of higher death tolls,” the paper reported. “Until this past week, California had topped 200 daily coronavirus-related deaths only four times. That number has been exceeded twice in the last five days.”

Vaccine doubts spur multimillion dollar educational campaign

A massive effort is underway across Southern California and the rest of the U.S. to change the minds of millions of Americans, particularly those in communities of color, who are skeptical about the safety of coronavirus vaccines.

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.

Lockdown satire

“Newsom issues double stay-at-home order where you have to stay in a smaller house inside your original house,” says a fake headline from the Babylon Bee humor site.