Standing Strong in a Global Pandemic

For more than a year, UTHSC’s faculty, staff, and students have exemplified courage, fortitude, and selfless leadership in caring for the public during the pandemic. Our faculty and students rushed into the battle early on, setting up and staffing one of the first and largest coronavirus testing sites in Memphis. Across all colleges and campuses, they have provided care to those with the virus, worked tirelessly

• February 27, 2020: Convened the first press conference in Memphis to reassure the public that steps were being taken to combat the advancing coronavirus. • Feb. 28, 2020: Launched uthsc.edu/coronavirus, a onestop resource for the public with the latest information about the virus and links to national, state, and local organizations monitoring its spread. The site is available in Spanish at: uthsc.edu/coronavirus-es/. • March 20, 2020: Opened one of the city’s first and largest public, drive-through testing sites for

COVID-19 at Tiger Lane at the Mid-South Fairgrounds in collaboration with the Shelby County Health

Department and the City of Memphis. • March 26, 2020: Established a lab on campus to analyze COVID-19 test samples to speed up diagnoses in the community, one of only a few at academic institutions across the country. • April 2020–September 2020: Convened several virtual coronavirus community forums to help the public understand and cope with the virus. • May 8, 2020: Provided hundreds of cases of handsanitizer manufactured in the UTHSC Plough Center for Sterile Drug Delivery Solutions to the university’s core teaching hospitals and the Shelby County Health

Department. • May 19, 2020: Leaders from the UTHSC College of

Medicine and the College of Nursing are tapped to manage a state-owned alternate-care COVID-19 hospital in Memphis if opened. researching COVID-19 therapeutics and supporting vaccine development, and been persistent in offering accurate and timely information to the public about the virus. In these worst of times, the university has fulfilled its mission “to improve the health and well-being of Tennesseans.” Led by this mission, UTHSC stands ready to meet the challenges ahead.

• September 2020: UTHSC and Regional One Health partnered on two late-stage clinical trials evaluating

Regeneron’s REGN-COV2, an investigational twoantibody cocktail for the treatment and prevention of

COVID-19. • October 2020: UTHSC and Regional One Health launch one of a handful of post-COVID-19 clinics in the country for individuals suffering from residual symptoms of the virus. • October 2020: Researchers at the University of

Tennessee Health Science Center, working with colleagues at the University of New Mexico, identified three drugs, already approved for other uses in humans, as possible therapeutics for COVID-19. • December 14, 2020: UTHSC hosted the director of the

CDC for a virtual conversation about the coronavirus and public health response. • December 19, 2020: Following the state’s guidelines and priorities, UTHSC began administering vaccinations on the Memphis campus to residents, students on hospital rotations, campus first responders, and faculty who provide inpatient services. • January 2021: Students and faculty join the community vaccination force in Shelby County at several sites. • February 2021: UTHSC, University Clinical Health, and the City of Memphis assume direction of the area’s vaccination distribution effort. • April 2021: The UTHSC vaccination workforce of students and faculty support and assist at the federal mass vaccination site in Memphis.

UTHSC student volunteers in direct vaccination roles

UTHSC student volunteers in vaccination support roles

Student volunteer hours for COVID19 Testing (Tiger Lane), March 2020-July 2020

Number of students staffing Tiger Lane site daily, including nights and weekends.

Approximate number of tests per day at Tiger Lane at full capacity

(39,433 visitors) to uthsc.edu/coronavirus

FY 21 COVID-19-related expenses for UTHSC