University employees — from tenured faculty to student workers — should watch email inboxes for alerts as steady progress continues to broaden the local education sector's access to COVID-19 vaccinations.

The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department has offered two vaccination clinics exclusively for those (ages 40 and up) within the education sector this week. Both events featured email messages from county health officials, alerting those who previously registered for the vaccine to availability and include a link to set a required appointment. The emails, which are from health@lincoln.ne.gov, are not spam.

To get the vaccine, university employees must have first registered through the health department’s registration site. The local health department’s vaccine schedule is currently in Phase 1B, which features essential worker groups, including the education sector. Phase 1B also includes the general population age 65 and over. The brand of vaccine varies by clinic.

Pat Lopez, director of the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department, said health officials are on pace to finish the education sector vaccinations within the next few weeks. At the conclusion of the March 12 clinic, more than 3,500 University of Nebraska–Lincoln employees have been vaccinated.

According to a tentative timeline provided by the State of Nebraska, students who are not university employees align with Phase 2B and should have access to the vaccine in mid- to late-spring. Details will be announced.

Employees who previously registered with the state or county vaccination programs do not need to register again. Any university employee who is age 40 or over, wishes to be vaccinated and has not been contacted via email about making an appointment should send an email to covid19@unl.edu.

Receiving the vaccine will not affect future COVID-19 test results and does not make instructors, staff or students exempt from participating in the university's random mitigation testing. Details on the vaccine and how it relates to testing are available from the Centers for Disease Control.

For more information, or to track vaccination progress, visit the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department’s COVID-19 website.