Coronavirus

To meet the increased need for COVID-19 testing that is likely to emerge in the Bay Area in the coming weeks, UCSF Health, with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and CZ Biohub, is now working to significantly expand our testing capacity for our patients. The new collaboration will also allow us to offer COVID-19 testing to patient populations served by our partner hospital Zuckerberg San Francisco General and other sites operated by the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

UC leaders are monitoring the COVID-19 situation closely, and doing everything they can to protect students, faculty, staff, medical center patients and campus visitors, UC President Janet Napolitano writes: "Stay calm and informed. Take care of yourself, your families and your community. Together, we will weather this crisis."

The University of California Board of Regents will hold its March 17-19 meeting virtually to protect the safety and well-being of the UC community and the public, given the concerns regarding COVID-19.

There will be no physical location for the meeting, but those interested can watch the livestream here.

The agenda for the Board of Regents’ meeting is posted online here. Public comment will be held via phone and may also be submitted by email; instructions on how to provide comment can be found here.  

Today UC Merced informed faculty that all instructional activity until the end of the semester is to be offered remotely and to transition all courses to some form of available instruction. UC Merced is doing this in response to guidance from public health authorities to implement social distancing in an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Protecting the health and safety of members of the campus community remains our priority.

Any students who went home over the weekend to the California counties that have imposed travel restrictions, and are now under a shelter-in-place order, are exempt from attendance requirements for in-person classes this week. This includes lab, studio and small classes.

Last week, UC ANR offices in Davis, Berkeley and at the Office of the President in Oakland began implementing telecommute and limited on-site operations protocols. A number of our County Extension offices have also been impacted. Starting March 16, all other UC ANR locations and programs will begin moving in phases to telecommuting and limited on-site operations status with the goal of having all functions, events, activities, meetings, etc. either postponed, canceled or moved to Zoom, and all employees working remotely by Friday, March 20, (with the exception of designated essential on-site staff/academics). This directive also includes all volunteer-led youth or adult programming, meetings or gatherings.

Today, President Napolitano issued updated guidance outlining expanded paid administrative leave to address the extraordinary demands placed on UC employees due to impacts related to COVID-19 on themselves and their family members. The executive order makes all employees eligible to receive a one-time allotment of up to 128 hours of paid administrative leave to be used no later than December 31, 2020, based on certain conditions. Leer en español.

In light of Alameda County’s announcement advising county residents to “shelter-in-place” beginning Tuesday, March 17 at 12:01 a.m. through Tuesday, April 7, UC Berkeley is rapidly moving toward a “maintenance-only” mode of physical operation of the campus. Generally speaking, that means that all in-person instruction should cease. All instruction that can be delivered remotely should continue. UC Berkeley will continue to provide updates on the evolving situation at: https://news.berkeley.edu/coronavirus/

Six Bay Area counties announced “shelter-in-place” orders, beginning at midnight Mar. 16 and remaining in effect at least through April 7. The orders direct everyone to stay inside their homes and away from others as much as possible for the next three weeks as public health officials work to curb the rapid spread of coronavirus across the region. The orders apply to San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa and Alameda counties. Accordingly, UC Office of the President offices in Oakland will close at 10:00 p.m. Mar. 16 and access to Oakland buildings will be restricted to emergency personnel only.

In accordance with an order from San Francisco Health Officer Tomas Aragon, UCSF Health will restrict visitors and UCSF personnel not directly involved with providing patient care and maintaining the UCSF Health infrastructure from its San Francisco hospitals effective March 14. You can learn more about tthe Health Officer Order by going to the patient section of https://www.ucsf.edu/coronavirus.