Andrea Diaz
Reporter
COVID-19 has been around for nearly a year, affecting how Idaho State University went forward with the Fall 2020 semester and it doesn’t seem like it will be any different for the Spring 2021 semester. Many of the trends from the fall semester are predicted to be the same in the Spring semester.
“There’s every indication that COVID-19 rates will continue for several more months. The holidays are likely to contribute to disease spread,” said Rex Force, Vice President for Health Sciences.
According to the New York Times, in Idaho there are currently about 1,000 cases a day and about 4 deaths a day. According to the isu.edu/roaringback website, there are about 20 new cases a day on the ISU Pocatello campus. When the Fall semester started there were about 300 new cases a day in Idaho and about 9 deaths a day and about 5 new cases a day on the ISU Pocatello campus.
With positive COVID-19 cases and deaths numbers spiking significantly ISU will continue the health precautions it has taken.
“It’s critical that the campus community continue all the disease mitigation activities that have been shown to be effective, like wearing face coverings, physical distancing, staying home when ill, keeping group sizes small and doing lots of hand washing,” Force said.
The campus has also installed a new testing program that all students are expected to participate in. Students are expected to take the COVID-19 test twice and within 5 days of each test.
“We are going to be doing more COVID screening on campus in the spring in order to identify asymptomatic spread of the illness. This should help to improve case identification and contact tracing,” Force said.
Testing has been shown to be a great tool in stopping the spread of COVID-19, however another and more promising way of stopping the spread is the new vaccine. The vaccine is first available to health-care workers and the medically vulnerable population. It is unclear when the vaccine will be open to the public.
When asked about when ISU students will have access to the vaccine, Force said, “Based on current vaccine distribution I would expect that younger and healthier individuals will be eligible for vaccination in late spring or early summer. Groups like those working in health care settings, the elderly and other vulnerable populations will be prioritized and receive the vaccination earlier.”
The road ahead of the ISU community and its battle with mitigating COVID-19 is far from over, however light can be seen at the end of the tunnel. With the help of the vaccine and continuing to follow the CDC guidelines the community can curb the spread.
“We know that fall semester was full of challenges and yet we persevered. Bengals will continue to help their fellow Bengals, that’s what we do and how we treat one another. The university community will continue to work together to keep each other safe and healthy by following CDC and other public health guidance.” Force said.
