May 14 - Updates on COVID-19

Peter the Anteater finishes up his homework just in time for the weekend. Photo by Ian Parker

TODAY’S CAMPUS UPDATES

Student COVID testing updates and reminders

Because of increased numbers of students receiving the vaccine, the Plaza Verde testing site will be closed on Thursdays and Fridays effective May 20. It will also be closed on Memorial Day, May 31. 

Once you receive your vaccine, please upload your record by visiting the Student Health Center Patient Portal. Here’s a video tutorial on how to navigate the upload process. Students who have been vaccinated and uploaded their vaccination records are exempt from participating in the Asymptomatic Testing Program.

UCI Family Day expanded

Earlier this week, we ran an item stating that UCI Health is offering vaccination appointments for all UCI employees and their immediate families. While vaccinations are still by appointment only, they have now been expanded to include all people ages 12 and older. The clinic will be at the Bren Events Center from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 16. Tell your friends and family!

No new campus cases*

No student residents or on-campus employees tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. For more information, visit the UCI COVID-19 dashboard.

UCI COVID-19 NEWS AND EVENTS

UCI turns contact tracers into team helping students get vaccinated

With the goal of calling every one of its roughly 37,000 students, a team at UCI has launched an effort to help its student body get vaccinated. The Contact Tracing & Vaccine Navigation Services team, whose job early in the pandemic focused just on tracing COVID-19 cases on campus, has now shifted its attention to vaccines, hoping to assist students in getting inoculated before coming to campus in September.

UC NEWS

Friday fun fact

Economic activity: State investment in UC provides an immediate return to California. For each dollar of state support UC receives, it generates more than $21 in economic output. 

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, OC Register and Washington Post for students, faculty and staff.

Visitors wear masks at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA on May 3. Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Disney will enact new CDC mask guidance ‘as soon as practical’

Disney welcomed new guidance from the CDC on mask and social distancing for fully vaccinated people, calling it "extremely positive news."

More than 266 million vaccine doses administered in US

The CDC reported Thursday that 266,596,486 total doses of the vaccine have been administered – about 78.6% of the 339,165,445 doses distributed. 

Survey finds most O.C. residents support masks and vaccines

A majority of Orange County residents support coronavirus vaccines, masks and other public health safety measures during the pandemic, according to a recent Chapman University survey of roughly 700 county residents.  

O.C. continues with encouraging COVID statistics

Orange County's COVID-19 positivity rate for its underprivileged ZIP codes hardest hit by the pandemic was lower Thursday than the county's overall positivity, the first time that has happened since the county began measuring the rates.

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.

Tanitoluwa Adewumi. USA TODAY

Once-homeless 10-year-old achieves remarkable title: chess master

Tanitoluwa "Tani" Adewumi became America's newest chess master on May 1 at the age of 10 years. On the road to master status, Tani defeated two experts, a master and an international master -- the result of practicing chess for 10 or 11 hours every day after school.

Tani's family left northern Nigeria in 2017 as refugees and moved to New York City. While his family lived in a homeless shelter, Tani learned to play chess at school and went on to win the state championship for kindergarten through third grade in 2019.

#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 COVID-19 vaccination, activities, workstation, volunteering, etc., to marketing@uci.edu or post on social media with the #UCIconnected hashtag.