Dean Lairmore's COVID-19 Update - January 25, 2021

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Dean Lairmore's COVID-19 Update - January 25, 2021

Veterinary Medicine community:

I would like to thank all of you for your hard work, patience, and dedication to fulfilling our mission.  January is rapidly coming to an end, and I wanted to bring you some important updates.

Beginning this Wednesday, a photo ID will be required at our weekly mobile Covid-19 testing station. The station was moved into VetMed 3B just in time for the cold weather, and I extend my thanks to the regular building occupants for accommodating the presence of the station. As always, you can sign up for testing at the Health E-Messaging Portal.

We expect that in the next week or two that the Daily Symptom Survey will be consolidated into the portal. With this change, the campus will be able to automatically confirm that on-campus employees taking the survey are current on their weekly testing requirement and flu vaccination. When they are ready to activate the new version of the survey, you can expect to see the announcement in UC Davis’ weekly Dateline email or through another university-wide announcement. In the meantime, please continue to use the current Daily Symptom Survey.

There have been a lot of questions about when more Covid-19 vaccinations will be available for essential veterinary personnel, as well as whether those who already received their first vaccine will still be able to receive their second. We don’t know the answer to the first question, unfortunately, but we will provide an update as soon as we can. If you have already received your first vaccination and have an appointment for a second shot, it will be honored. We are also pleased that our off-site laboratories, such as our CAHFS and VMTRC units in Tulare, have been able to make arrangements for vaccinations of their faculty and staff through their regional health departments.

We know how important it is for essential veterinary personnel to receive the vaccination in order for us to safely continue our mission of providing care to animals. UC Davis’ hospital services have become even more critical to the region during this pandemic; at times, we have been the only available facility for emergency services in the area. We will continue to provide information as we receive it. We also keep the FAQs on our Coronavirus Information pages updated, so you can visit them anytime for current information.

I am delighted at the success of last Wednesday’s coronavirus-focused town hall. Eric Kvigne, the campus’s Associate Vice Chancellor of Safety Services, and Dr. Richard Michelmore, the director of the Genome Center and the leader of UC Davis’ testing program, provided valuable, fascinating information on how the test was created and implemented. If you couldn’t view it, I recommend that you check out the recording.

These town halls provide opportunities for School of Veterinary Medicine community members to learn, ask questions and make suggestions to help improve the university’s response to the pandemic. Our next one is scheduled for Wednesday, February 17. We’ll provide more information on it soon.

Thank you for all you are doing and stay safe.

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