Amid a worsening Omicron surge, four University of California campuses announced Thursday that they are extending remote instruction to the end of January.
UC campuses at Irvine, Davis, Santa Cruz and San Diego, whose winter quarters began Jan. 3, said that rising positivity rates for coronavirus infections had compelled them to exercise extra caution and push back the start of in-person instruction to Jan. 31. Davis had planned to return to campus on Monday, while Irvine, Santa Cruz and San Diego had announced a Jan. 18 start.
In a message to the campus community Thursday night, UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman said the campus positivity rate of those tested since Sunday was 13% — lower than the Orange County rate of 25% but still “simply too much disease transmission … to assume safe in-person interactions.” He said the surge in coronavirus cases created a risk of staffing shortages and students who might not be able to attend classes in person, creating a burden on faculty to create both in-person and online options.
“Restarting in-person instruction when large numbers of students may not be able to take advantage of it is not reasonable or fair to students or to the faculty who would need to accommodate students who could not attend in-person instruction through no fault of their own,” he said.
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