January 15, 2021
Dear UC Santa Barbara Community Members,
We are writing to share with you our progress and next steps regarding our campus vaccination plan.
Over the past two weeks we have completed administering the first COVID-19 vaccine to campus community members identified for Phase 1a – persons at risk of exposure through their work in direct health care.
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department (SBCPHD), which is directing vaccine approval and distribution under the framework established by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), has approved UC Santa Barbara Student Health to begin administering vaccines next week to active staff and faculty over the age of 75. Once this phase has been completed, we are approved by SBCPHD to administer any remaining vaccines from our limited first delivery to employees 65-74 years of age.
Those who are eligible during this next vaccine phase will be contacted directly via email by Student Health to arrange appointments, therefore campus community members do not need to contact Student Health or the COVID-19 Response team to request a vaccination. If you have questions regarding COVID-19 vaccines please email covid19-vaccine@ucsb.edu.
UC Santa Barbara is required to follow the guidelines provided by the state, county, and federal public health authorities.
At this time, we still do not have additional information about how other members of our UC Santa Barbara community will be able to access the vaccine or if additional vaccines will be made available to campus. We are working closely with the SBCPHD to determine how and when other members of our community will receive their vaccines. We will continue to send updates as more information is made available.
Until then, if you are able to get a vaccine through your personal healthcare provider, please do so for your safety and the safety of your family and our community.
SBCPHD also advises that individuals 65+ interested in COVID-19 vaccinations, can do the following:
- Check in with your regular primary care provider to see if they can offer a vaccine appointment,
- Sign up for our COVID-19 vaccine email newsletter to receive updates about vaccine distribution: https://signup.e2ma.net/signup/1937902/1753150/, and
- Check in with 2-1-1 and select Option #4 to speak with our County Call Center about your vaccine questions.
UC Santa Barbara continues to make preparations to provide immunizations quickly, safely, and professionally to whatever extent we are authorized to do so. Our campus COVID-19 Call Center (ucsb-covid19@ucsb.edu) is open from 8 am – 4 pm Monday through Friday to assist students, faculty, and staff with questions related to other, non-vaccine related COVID-19 issues.
Even as we enter a hopeful new year and a hopeful new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, we strongly urge everyone to continue to wear masks, physically distance from others, and follow all public health guidelines.
