The Davis campus is moving from “suspended operations” to “reduced operations.”

The reopening will be gradual, Vice Chancellor Kelly Ratliff said in a message to the campus Thursday (May 28), and will be accompanied by health and safety guidelines to guard against coronavirus infection among people returning to campus. The guidelines will be part of an online toolkit to be posted in the next day or so.

COVID-19 reporting protocols for the Davis campus and UC Davis locations remains in place, as modified May 27 based on guidance from the Office of the President. No longer must staff, faculty and students report they have been tested; instead, they must report positive tests only, for themselves or someone with whom they share a residence. Read more below.

Ratliff’s letter about the gradual resumption of campus operations went out after Yolo County announced it would allow in-office work to resume, along with in-store retail shopping and in-restaurant dining, among other activities.

“I know that’s welcome news to many of you looking forward to getting back to offices on the Davis campus, back to your favorite corner in the CoHo and back to browsing aisles in UC Davis Stores,” said Ratliff, who leads Finance, Operations and Administration.

“But,” she cautioned, “our return to full operations will not happen rapidly, and I urge all of you to remain patient as we continue to put measures in place to meet the county’s requirements for reinstating operations and align with administrative and office work being done on the Sacramento campus.”

Ratliff leads an operations workgroup that developed the following guiding principles:

• Comply with local, state and national public health directives regarding shelter in place, physical distancing and face coverings.
• Administrative and office work should ramp up in alignment with workload drivers that trigger the need for on-campus personnel.
• Activities that can be conducted remotely should continue in remote mode to the fullest extent possible as determined and assigned by supervisors and managers.
• Reasonable accommodations should be assessed and implemented using an interactive process and should consider individual COVID-19 risk status and related factors such as child care to the extent allowed by law.
• Readiness to quickly add, modify or remove business practices in response to new public health guidelines and new data and information about best practices.

The research enterprise has entered Phase 2 of the ramp-up plan, as announced by Vice Chancellor Prasant Mohapatra.

COVID-19 reporting

The protocol for reporting positive tests — for yourself or for someone with whom you share a residence — is mandatory.

Under a streamlined reporting process for the Davis campus, you send a single email to reportcovid@ucdavis.edu. That same email is available to report concerns about anyone in the campus community having COVID-19, whether on or off campus.

The process is laid out on the Reporting COVID-19 Concerns and Confirmed Cases website, which declares: “The primary concern is the overall safety of the campus.”

Reports are reviewed within 24 hours by a team that includes Occupational Health, Student Health and Risk Management. Medical and administrative staff provide medical guidance to affected individuals and ascertain risk to the campus, while continuing to balance the need for privacy.

Officials also evaluate proximity issues for individuals having close or even tertiary contact with known positive cases. In most of these circumstances with asymptomatic individuals, the risk to campus is very low. Most times, no further action is necessary aside from providing the guidance on monitoring for new symptoms.

Said Eric Kvigne, director of Safety Services: “Please remember that reporting COVID-19 concerns allows the campus to respond under guidance of our Medical Directors to evaluate and mitigate risk to our community. We appreciate your utilization and reliance on this process rather than attempting any kind of independent investigation/response.”

See what happens when a COVID-19-positive report comes in.

UC Davis Health

• COVID-19 reporting address: deputychro@ucdavis.edu
• Complete UC Davis Health reporting protocol

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