U.S. President Donald Trump declared a national emergency upon the sudden spread of SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19, on March 13, 2020, which first appeared in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.
Throughout quarantine, there have been multiple ups and downs in regard to public safety, such as the debate over re-opening businesses too soon, lack of mask mandates and crowded events where people are not social distancing.
According to The New York Times, as of Nov. 17, the state of Iowa has had more than 190,000 cases and 2,023 deaths.
This week, Kirkwood Community College’s President Dr. Lori Sundberg sent an email to students announcing that after Thanksgiving Break, a majority of classes would move online, to quell numbers and keep students and staff members safe.
In a recent study that asked students about the impact COVID-19 has had on them, 35.8% of students said they believed that Kirkwood could have done better when it came to regulating COVID-19 on campus, with about half of those students saying classes should have gone online sooner. However, 64.3% of the survey participants said Kirkwood has been doing a good job with COVID-19 regulations.
With the nation seemingly preparing for “Quarantine Round 2,” many are bound to get a little stir crazy. In the same survey, students were asked if they had found any new hobbies or returned to old ones while the nation was in lockdown.
Four of the 16 students who talked about their hobbies said they started learning a new instrument. One student said they have picked up writing and journaling, three students have engaged in more arts and crafts, and one student even started raising chickens. Two additional students who completed the survey said they have been spending more time watching Netflix and YouTube.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds announced an indoor mask mandate on Nov. 16, which, according to KCRG TV-9 News, many businesses had already made those decisions and placed a reminder for customers on their doors.
In the survey, students were also asked if they had been following the state’s COVID-19 safety guidelines, in which 86% of the students said they were. Seven percent of respondents said they were unsure if they were or not and another 7% admitted that they weren’t.
Categories: Campus News, COVID-19, News
