Dear MICA Community,
We hope everyone has had a restorative break and this communication finds you well.
As you may have heard over the last few days, global interest and concern over a variant of the COVID-19 virus—named Omicron—has been developing. MICA’s campus health and safety team has already met with our consulting epidemiologists to better understand the emerging facts and science of this variant, and how it may potentially affect us.
Given that the initial cluster of patients first diagnosed with the Omicron variant in South Africa were unvaccinated, scientists are determining to what extent existing vaccines offer protection against severe consequences. MICA’s high rate of vaccination on campus continues to serve our community well, but it is clear that it is still too early to make any concrete determinations.
To that end, in alignment with our epidemiologists and the current CDC guidance, which now states that ALL individuals 18 and older SHOULD receive a booster shot, MICA encourages all fully vaccinated community members to receive a COVID-19 booster. Boosters are currently widely available for individuals who are 18+ and who have received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine six months ago, or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine two months ago.
COVID-19 boosters have been proven to be safe and effective ways of increasing your immunity against the virus for several months. With winter break and the holiday season coming up soon, now is an ideal time to schedule and receive that immunity boost.
While MICA is not yet requiring the booster, we continue to monitor the public health situation to see how Omicron may impact the US and are considering making boosters a requirement if the data supports it. In light of this, if you have already received a COVID-19 booster or when you do receive your booster, we are asking everyone to please upload your proof of booster vaccination to Workday (employees, instructions below) and Medicat (students, instructions at the link).
Information and appointment resources:
- Maryland.gov
- Baltimore City Health Department weekly community vaccination sites
- CVS
- Walgreens
- RiteAid
As always, we will continue to work directly with our consulting epidemiologists and cross-area planning groups to monitor the public health situation both on and off campus, and will provide updates as the situation develops.
Thank you.
Instructions for MICA Employees to upload Proof of COVID-19 into Workday
Step 1: Please save the document using use the following naming convention before uploading to Workday: 2021_COVID_Booster
Step 2: Log in to your Workday account.
Step 3: Click on your picture or the cloud icon on the top right corner.
Step 4: Select View Profile.
Step 5: Select Personal on the left panel.
Step 6: Select Documents at the top of the page.
Step 7: Click Add and select the file that you would like to upload.
Step 8: Select the document category: Proof of COVID-19 Booster
Step 9: Click Ok.