New COVID-19 case notification dashboard
COVID-19 Response and Recovery Task Force
Dear Bruin Community:
We hope you had a safe and restful holiday break.
As we shared last month, UCLA has created a COVID-19 case dashboard (DOCX) in an effort to keep our community members informed if they were present in a building where someone who tested positive for COVID-19 had been. Whenever UCLA receives notice of a COVID-19 positive case occurring on a UCLA property, the case location dashboard will be updated and an email notification will be sent to those who indicated in the symptom monitoring survey if they would be present in the related facilities. These email notifications will be sent to both campus and UCLA Health employees.
This is a good reminder that anyone planning to come to a UCLA facility to work or learn is first required to complete the daily symptom monitoring survey. Those living in UCLA facilities are also required to complete the daily survey. Protocol and survey links are available at Bruins Safe Online. The email notifications noted above will be sent to those who participate in the required symptom monitoring survey.
This effort is also compliant with Assembly Bill 685 — which requires all California employers to provide notice to their employees, exclusive union representatives and employers of subcontracted employees of potential exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace — as well as with Cal/OSHA Title 8 CCR 3205, COVID-19 Prevention. AB 685 also requires UCLA to provide notice to all unions of any employee (including those not represented by a union) who tested positive for COVID-19 and who worked at UCLA facilities, and to provide the name, job title, date of onset of illness and location of the worksite. Any employee who does not want their identity to be disclosed in this notification must request anonymity in response to the question that will appear in the Symptom Monitoring Survey. If you do not select anonymity, your name and job title will be disclosed to the unions if you test positive for the virus. Confidentiality of personally identifiable information is provided for in AB 685, which prevents disclosure of personally identifiable employee information in a public records or similar request. It also prohibits disclosure of the information on a website or to any other state or federal agency. However, it mandates the disclosure to UCLA union representatives unless the employee specifically indicates that they do not want their information shared.
Please note that this dashboard and notifications are separate from UCLA contact tracing, which remains unchanged. There is no need to contact the COVID-19 Call Center after receiving these email notifications. Anyone considered to be a close contact of a positive case (as defined by the L.A. County Department of Public Health) will be directly contacted by the UCLA Exposure Management Team or L.A. County Department of Public Health and provided appropriate instructions.
Thank you again for your attention to the protocols and procedures available at Bruins Safe Online. In addition to symptomatic testing, UCLA’s Community Screening Program continues to help us identify cases early through asymptomatic testing. To ensure all cases are tracked properly, please remember to review and follow UCLA’s Standard Operating Procedure for Responding to COVID-19 Cases on the UCLA Campus (PDF) to report any additional cases on campus that are discovered outside the screening program.
As always, additional helpful information is available on UCLA’s COVID-19 website and you can email covid19@ucla.edu with any questions.
Sincerely,
Michael J. Beck
Administrative Vice Chancellor
Co-chair, COVID-19 Response and Recovery Task Force
Michael Meranze
Immediate Past Chair, Academic Senate
Professor of History
Co-chair, COVID-19 Response and Recovery Task Force
