UC Irvine announced Thursday evening it is extending remote instruction two weeks to Jan. 28 because of the increased spread of COVID-19.
Coronavirus testing since Sunday has found there is a 13% test positivity rate among the UC Irvine community, Chancellor Howard Gillman said in a message to the UC Irvine community.
Gillman called Orange County’s test positivity rate of over 25% “simply too much disease transmission both on campus and in the community to assume safe in-person interactions.”
“These numbers create a risk that we may not have enough healthy faculty and staff to do the work necessary to maintain fully in-person instructional operations (including housing and dining operations) if we simply return to the `new normal’ a week from Monday,” Gillman said.
“A return to in-person instruction is a priority, but we also must give members of our community opportunities to take care for themselves and their loved ones who become infected.”
UC San Diego, UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz also announced Thursday they had pushed back the start of in-person instruction to Jan. 31.
A planned two weeks of remote instruction at UC Irvine began Monday, the start of the winter quarter.