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Optical microlensing surveys are restricted from detecting events near theGalactic plane and center, where the event rate is thought to be the highest,due to the high optical extinction of these fields. In the near-infrared (NIR),however, the lower extinction leads to a corresponding increase in eventdetections and is a primary driver for the wavelength coverage of the $WFIRST$microlensing survey. During the 2015 and 2016 bulge observing seasons weconducted NIR microlensing surveys with UKIRT in conjunction with and insupport of the $Spitzer$ and $Kepler$ microlensing campaigns. Here we report onfive highly extinguished ($A_H=0.81-1.97$), low-Galactic latitude ($-0.98\leb\le -0.36$) microlensing events discovered from our 2016 survey. Four of themwere monitored with an hourly cadence by optical surveys but were not reportedas discoveries, likely due to the high extinction. Our UKIRT surveys andsuggested future NIR surveys enable the first measurement of the microlensingevent rate in the NIR. This wavelength regime overlaps with the bandpass of thefilter in which the $WFIRST$ microlensing survey will conduct itshighest-cadence observations, making this event rate derivation criticallyimportant for optimizing its yield.

UKIRT microlensing surveys as a pathfinder for $WFIRST$: The detection of five highly extinguished low-$|b|$ events