INDEX

• Vaccinations
• Pfizer/BioNTech
• Report your status
• Exceptions
• Asymptomatic testing
• Be patient, be kind
• Face coverings
• Aggie Info and Help Line
• UPDATED: Webinars to be held Aug. 30 and Sept. 14
• Volunteers
• Healthy UC Davis resources
• Healthy Davis Together

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With just under a month until the start of the new academic year, 78 percent of employees and students on the Davis campus are reporting that they have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The combined rate breaks down to 77 percent for employees and 79 percent for students, as shown on the COVID-19 Dashboard. 

As the deadline approaches for mandatory vaccinations, campus officials are encouraging all employees and students to get vaccinated and submit their vaccination information to the Health-e-Messaging system.

With the vaccination mandate and requirements for testing and face coverings, officials are confident the campus can safely resume regular operations in the fall. Read the provost's latest fall planning update (Aug. 12) and Checking In With Chancellor May (Aug. 13).

We’ve assembled reminders about the vaccine mandate and how to report your status, the exception process (including why you may not have heard yet from Sedgwick, UC’s third-party administrator), and a number of other topics, including asymptomatic testing; face coverings; a webinar for staff, “Returning to Campus: Navigating the New Normal,” set for Monday (Aug. 30); and resource guides from Healthy UC Davis.

Vaccinations

Required for all Davis campus staff, faculty and students by Wednesday, Sept. 8. This is a UC-wide requirement (with varying effective dates, depending on location). Campus Ready includes the following:

• Recording of Aug. 4 webinar
• NEW: FAQs from the webinar
• Novovax, newly added to the list of vaccines acceptable to meet the UC requirement.

Pfizer/BioNTech

Fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration, as of Monday (Aug. 23), for ages 16 and up, Pfizer/BioNTech was being administered under emergency-use authorization.

Report your status

Starting with your first shot of the two-dose Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, or after receiving the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

• NEW: Step-by-step guide
• Log in to Health-e-Messaging to confirm your compliance with the vaccine mandate and find information on how to troubleshoot if the system is not reflecting the information you have submitted. Refer to the step-by-step guide listed above.

Exceptions

For medical or religious reasons, pregnancy deferral or disability accommodation. You must start the process by Sept. 8. If your request is denied, you will need to take immediate steps to be in compliance with the policy. After your first dose, your medical record will be marked as conditionally compliant with a projected end date based on your vaccine shot schedule.

• Employees who have initiated an exception or deferral request will hear from UC’s third-party administrator, Sedgwick. Once you hear from Sedgwick, please respond promptly and provide the requested documentation. Note: Even if you have not heard back from Sedgwick regarding your exception request, you are deemed compliant while your request is pending, subject to the requirements listed in the next bullet point.
• While your request is pending, you must undergo testing every four days and adhere to the campus’s face covering guidance, under which everyone must war face coverings indoors whether you are vaccinated or unvaccinated, and unvaccinated people must wear face coverings outdoors in crowded spaces and when inside vehicles with other people. Also, any time a face covering is required, please continue to maintain physical distance if possible. Unvaccinated people in particular need to maintain physical distance while eating or drinking in workplace settings, per Cal/OSHA requirements. More information is available on Campus Ready’s Public Health Policies and Requirements page.
• What if your request gets denied? An exception request will have multiple reviews before it is denied. Once denied, an employee will need to get vaccinated to be in compliance with policy. You will have 14 days to submit proof of your one-dose vaccine or get your first shot in a two-dose series (Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna). You will need to have your second shot scheduled and will be allowed time to do so. Any delay with completing either shot will result in your being placed into a disciplinary process that may lead to termination.

Asymptomatic testing

• People with approved exceptions or deferrals may continue in-person activities with the expectation that they will get tested every four days (regardless of their flexible work schedules) and wear face coverings indoors and also outdoors in crowded settings.
• If you are fully vaccinated, the university will require testing every 14 days, starting Sept. 20.
• Changes at UC Davis Health — The testing location, accessible for Davis campus employees and their households, has moved from Betty Irene Moore Hall to the Administrative Support Building, 2450 48th St. Parking: Free in a limited number of spaces between the ASB and the Education Building. Testing hours: 6 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Friday. Appointments can be made in Health-e-Messaging. Walk-ins welcome.
• Changes at Healthy Davis Together (see below)

Be patient, be kind

With students returning to campus and more people testing routinely, we ask everyone who is getting tested on campus to please be patient if testing takes a little longer than usual. To help things go smoothly, please show up to your appointment on time, consider walking or biking to the Activities and Recreation Center (instead of driving, as parking in Lot 25 may become more difficult), bring your ID, do not eat/drink 30 minutes beforehand and be nice.

Face coverings

Everyone is required to wear face coverings indoors, regardless of vaccination status.

• Removing your face covering for eating indoors is permitted only in dining facilities or designated break rooms. Unvaccinated employees must maintain 6 feet of physical distance when eating in a workplace setting.
• Face coverings also required, for everyone, on Unitrans and at the California National Primate Center when in proximity (5 feet) to outdoor field enclosures.

Aggie Info and Help Line

• A resource for students — something for faculty and staff to keep in mind, where they can direct students with their COVID-19-related questions. Students can call, 530-752-4636, or submit questions via the website.

Upcoming webinars

• Returning to Campus: Navigating the New Normal

• 3-4:30 p.m. Monday (Aug. 30)
• Register in advance.

This webinar aims to address concerns and promote psychological and physical safety as many staff return to campus this fall. The featured speakers include:

• Rob Starkey, program director, Academic and Staff Assistance Program, or ASAP
• Karega Paisley, physician, Occupational Health Services
• Terri De La Mora, Employee and Labor Relations

Sponsored by Staff Assembly, Staff and Faculty Health and Well-Being Program, Academic and Staff Assistance Program, Occupational Health Services, and Employee and Labor Relations. Please contact Staff Assembly with any questions.

• NEWLY ADDED: Flexible Work Planning With Health and Safety Update

• 1-2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14
• Register in advance.

Learn how UC Davis is supporting flexible work planning for staff on the Davis campus. Topics include the importance of flexible work planning to advancing UC Davis’ mission; the flexible work planning process and the role of Flexible Work Liaisons; formalizing a flexible work arrangement; and tips for respectful and productive dialogue around flexible work arrangements (great for supervisors). Health and safety topics: The vaccine mandate for employees, requirements for testing and face coverings, contact tracing and quarantining, and compliance and enforcement.

Volunteers

A new Campus Ready page outlines COVID-19 protocols applicable to volunteers from the general public (i.e., those who are not already affiliated with the university), and the departments and units who work with such volunteers.  

Healthy UC Davis resources

Healthy UC Davis has prepared three guides, one for academics and staff, one for graduate and professional program students, and one for undergraduates. Academics and staff will find resources for the following:

• Feeling anxious?
• Hesitant or nervous about the vaccine?
• Do you want to talk to someone? (It could be professional or personal.)
• Want to improve your work-from-home set-up or routine?
• Need help handling pressures from remote teaching?
• Looking for ways to stay active?
• Facing child care challenges?

Healthy Davis Together

This partnership between UC Davis and the city of Davis announced new testing locations and schedules, saying they will help in meeting increased demand in schools and the broader community as residents step up to help fight the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus.

A brand-new high-capacity testing location is set to open at the Farm House at The Cannery on Sunday, Aug. 29. Gift cards will be available for anyone who gets tested at The Cannery while supplies last.

Davis High School’s community testing program, in the Richard Brunelle Performance Hall, launched extended hours Monday (Aug. 23). In addition, the Davis Joint Unified School District is partnering with Healthy Yolo Together to offer free, saliva-based testing to students and staff at more than a dozen schools when school begins Wednesday (Aug. 25).

Elsewhere, the Healthy Davis Together testing site at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts will remain open for only a few more days, through Saturday (Aug. 28), as the university prepares to resume normal operations. The UC Davis Activities and Recreation Center, which has been providing testing to faculty, staff and students since last September, will provide limited community testing on campus beginning Friday (Aug. 27).

See testing locations and schedules here. You may schedule appointments on the same page. Walk-ins are welcome at all testing locations.

RELATED CONTENT

• Back-to-school safety: UC Davis Health experts will answer your COVID-19-related questions remotely, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Monday (Aug. 30).
• Vaccine Slashed COVID-19 Rates Among UC Davis Medical Center Employees
• School of Medicine Partners With Pfizer to Study COVID-19 Booster Vaccine
• Patient Shuns COVID-19 Vaccine, Then Changes Mind After Hospitalization