Last week on Oct. 20, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced new restrictions for regions across Illinois due to rising COVID-19 positivity rates in the course of the pandemic’s “second surge.” Although case numbers are rapidly increasing, Pritzker said that a second stay-at-home order will not be necessary at this time.
Top three locations for COVID-19 to linger
During a press conference last Tuesday, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) explained where this problem is stemming from. She said that contact tracing and multiple studies have shown there are three significant locations where the virus spreads most efficiently. These three places are: workplaces, schools and bars & restaurants.
“In terms of the workplace, there are simply people who can’t work from home,” said Ezike. “We’ll continue to let local health departments and school districts decide on what will keep children and teachers safe. The one thing we can act on is bars and restaurants.”
Therefore, with positivity rates spiking in DuPage, Kane, Kankakee and Will county, the state has suspended all indoor bars and restaurants in these areas for two weeks as of Friday, Oct. 23.
According to the DuPage County Health Department, there are currently 1,718 confirmed cases and 42 deaths in Naperville alone. DuPage County has reported a whopping 22,596 confirmed cases and 607 deaths total as of Oct. 27.
Changes at NCC
As for our campus, according to NCC’s positive COVID-19 test results, 59 students and two staff members have tested positive since campus testing was initiated on Aug. 6. Unfortunately, a majority of these cases emerged only over the last calendar week. In other words, the numbers are rising at an incredibly fast rate.
“The recent increase in positive tests among our campus community is representative of broader increases across the state and within our region,” said Peter Barger, assistant provost and director of Institutional Effectiveness and Planning and a co-chair of NCC’s COVID-19 Institutional Response Team.
Given such drastic figures and aiming to follow the IDPH guidelines, President Hammond announced the following restrictions for NCC:
- In-person College-approved events may have up to 25 people in attendance, including events led by students organizations, offices and faculty/staff. Physical distancing and face masks will be required.
- Also, students and faculty/staff can gather casually in groups of no more than 10 individuals; everyone must wear their masks and proper distancing should be implemented.
- Students: dining on campus is now canceled and all food and drink on campus must be taken to go.
In-person classes and athletic activities will continue with the existing health and safety protocols through the end of the semester.
Everyone can track their daily health with NCC’s CampusClear app. Members of the campus community that are having symptoms of COVID-19 or have been exposed to someone with symptoms can notify the College using the COVID-19 reporting form.
