Throughout fall quarter, interim Vice Chancellor for Research John MacMillan and Student Health Center Medical Director Elizabeth Miller are providing regular updates about efforts to support the campus community’s health and well-being.
Dear Campus Community,
It’s so exciting to see our campus buzzing with activity after a successful move-in. Everyone in our campus community worked so hard to get us to this point and should take a moment to celebrate this milestone.
Each week, we will provide the campus with helpful updates and summaries of the measures underway to support the health and well-being of our UC Santa Cruz community.
The great news is that we have not had any positive COVID-19 tests from students who moved into campus housing this past week and weekend. Every student moving into campus housing was required to come to campus with a COVID-19 test and to again get tested as they moved into campus housing. Students will again need to be tested by Sept. 30.
Summary of Updates
- Status update on campus and in Santa Cruz County
- Free, easy asymptomatic COVID-19 tests available
Status Update
- No positive COVID-19 tests among residential students: As mentioned above, no students who moved into campus housing have tested positive for COVID-19.
- No students in campus quarantine/isolation: Our dashboard shows 16 students in quarantine and 76 students in isolation. These are students residing off-campus in isolation; none are in the campus quarantine and isolation space. Some students tested positive as they were preparing to come to campus and will remain at their permanent residence until they’re no longer contagious.
- High vaccination rate in our campus community: As of today, 91 percent of UC Santa Cruz students and 91 percent of employees have complied with our COVID vaccine policy.
- Slug Strong dashboard offers regular updates: Our COVID-19 dashboard is updated daily and provides a breakdown of COVID-19 cases.
- Santa Cruz County dashboard shows decline in new cases: The county currently has 509 active known cases, which is a 34 percent decline over the past 14 days.
- Mask up! Both the campus and county require face coverings in most indoor situations.
Asymptomatic Testing Program
UC Santa Cruz continues to provide free and easy asymptomatic COVID-19 testing for our campus community.
Vaccinated students living on campus must get a COVID-19 test within five to seven days of moving to UC Santa Cruz. Vaccinated students who live off campus must get a test by Sept. 30. Unvaccinated students with approved exemptions must continue to be tested at least once every four days throughout the quarter, commencing with their arrival on campus.
Testing is voluntary for vaccinated employees who live, work or come on-site for any reason. Unvaccinated staff and faculty with approved exemptions who come on-site for any reason are also required to test at least every four days.
Last week’s campus update provided a summary about how and when to get tested. There are many options available.
