January 2021
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COVID Chronicles

Volume 4, January 2021

Facing the post-holiday spike

 

The new year has brought new challenges on the COVID-19 front. Our positive rate for employees and for students living on campus has seen an uptick since the start of the year. Our COVID dashboard provides the latest campus testing results. The spike is disappointing but not surprising, as many in our community left the area over the

John MacMillan

John MacMillan

holidays, seeing family and friends, increasing exposure opportunities. Our overall positivity rate remains well below the county and state average, but it’s still higher than we want. Sarah Latham, our vice chancellor for Business and Administrative Services, issued a campus COVID update Thursday that provides a broad overview.

 

A positive development is the switch we have made at our diagnostic lab to “pool test” samples taken as part of our campus asymptomatic testing program. We started that Jan. 4. It now puts us in a position to routinely test more than 1,000 students and staff per day. In this process, individual test samples are combined. When a combined pool registers positive, individual samples are tested to identify the positives. We’ve aspired to this method since opening the lab six months ago, but first needed to become efficient handling clinical samples and validating processes, essentially learning to walk before we could run. We now have the ability to handle as many as 1,500 tests per day, which is a huge plus for our campus and the greater community.

 

The virus variant you’ve been hearing about is a mutation that spreads more easily than the typical COVID-19 strain. The variant was first isolated in the U.K., and we’re now seeing it spread throughout the U.S. Our current test will detect the new variant as a positive, but will not reveal whether any of our positives are specifically the new variant. However, our campus has a long history in genomics and in genomic data analysis, and sequencing efforts are underway that will allow us to determine if the variant is present. Hopefully that will be soon.

 

The good news is that fending off the variant, which is no more deadly than the typical virus, takes no more effort than defending ourselves against the others: Practice social distancing, wear face coverings when in close contact with others, keep your social circles tight, and get tested if you believe you may be infected.

 

John MacMillan is associate vice chancellor for research and professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UCSC.

COVID in the news

 
Rebecca and Bud Colligan

A gift from Bud and Rebecca Colligan, longtime supporters of the UCSC Genomics Institute, will expand COVID-19 testing capacity and help fund new, dedicated laboratory space.

Rebecca DuBois

Using optical biosensor technology, the test provides highly accurate, quantitative measurements of antibodies in blood plasma in less than 20 minutes.

Beau Richter, head trainer for the Marine Mammal Physiology Project at UCSC’s Long Marine Laboratory, with Rain, an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin. (Photo by T.M. Williams, permit #19590)

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Professor Terrie Williams, who has spent decades studying marine mammals, analyzes the long-term effects oxygen deprivation from COVID might have on humans.

prisoner in jail

A new interactive web project by Film and Digital Media Professor Sharon Daniel creates a cumulative public record and evolving history of the pandemic's impact on those incarcerated.

Grocery delivery

A new report from Environmental Studies and Sociology Professor Chris Benner examines the growth of e-commerce grocery retail jobs and the decline in employee protections and benefits.

Hear from our experts

 
The Kraw Lecture Series have been a key resource in keeping our community and others informed on all things COVID. Learn how UCSC researchers are combatting the pandemic at home and abroad.
Virus illustration with slug across it

Four UCSC researchers who co-founded the Molecular Diagnostic Lab highlight the science unfolding on campus in response to the pandemic.

Watch now

Graphic of a virus

Professor David Haussler discusses the role of the open source SARS-CoV-2 genome browser in tracing the evolution of the COVID-19 virus.

Watch now

Virtual events

 
bull image
The COVID-sparked economic crisis has altered all aspects of our lives. Tune into the CAFIN and UC Investment series, which explores COVID-19 financial challenges and developments.
Dan Costa with seal in the Antarctic
Suffering from pandemic fatigue? Tune in to this discussion on a different topic with equal importance. Join UCSC's Dan Costa and Slawek Tulaczyk for a conversation on the impacts of climate change and evolutionary projections.

Stay connected: UCSC Minute

 

We all miss spending time on campus, so check out our UC Santa Cruz Minute series, 60-second clips of campus scenery. Access the full collection on our YouTube page.

 

deer on east field of UCSC campus
 

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