COVID-19 Updates: August 11, 2020
|
|
|
|
Going to College During COVID-19: Tips for College Students and Their Parents |
|
|
|
|
|
Heading to college this fall? Get COVID-19 physical and emotional health tips in this week's 2 Your Well-Being discussion with infectious disease specialist Cynthia Snider, MD, MPH; licensed clinical psychologist David Gutterman, PhD; and WFMY News 2.
|
|
|
|
Some college students may think they don’t need to worry about COVID-19. What advice do you have about COVID-19 for a young person who is going to college?
Snider: “So, like many people in the community, I think it's super important to still wear a mask and also still try to maintain social distancing. Then also practice hand hygiene and watch for symptoms. Know that if you are having some symptoms that are consistent with COVID, it's good to talk to your student health clinic and also quarantine.
“The majority of cases in North Carolina are in age groups that also include college students. So even though a college student may not get sick enough to be hospitalized, they still can get pretty sick. That takes them out of class and potentially affects their roommates or their classmates and their families. So it's incredibly important to still follow those three Ws.”
How can college students reduce exposure while they're on a college campus?
Snider: “I know a lot of the college organizers around Guilford County as well as in Alamance County are working incredibly hard to create that social distance. So, for a student, if you have an option to be in a single dorm, I think that's perfect. Still, when you're congregating or going out to classes, always wearing a face mask is the new ritual, I would say. And hand hygiene. Going to get your meals at the cafeteria is going to look much different. Try to eat outdoors. Some of the classes you choose may be staggered, some of them will be in smaller sections, run by TAs. And then also, for those bigger classes, it makes sense to do online schooling sessions instead.”
What advice do you have for students who may be anxious about going away to college during a pandemic?
Gutterman: “There are different kinds of worries depending upon what the students' experiences have been for this last number of months of COVID. So, for example, there are some students who will be worried about transmission of the virus, and again, that can depend upon if they've had lost loved ones, or they've been sick themselves, or have immune compromised family members. So they have very specific types of concerns about how they're going to protect themselves. They sometimes have worries and concerns about an early return home, if they're going to come home on weekends or if they're going to be sent home after a month of being at school…
“For these students, it's important to recognize that their concerns are certainly normal. There are other like-minded students, and they need to remind themselves why they're taking care of themselves. As Doctor Snider said, it's important to continue to take precautions and one of the difficulties they might encounter is that not all students are going to have those same concerns, and so they might be ostracized and have some worries about being singled out or being seen as being different… so it's important to plan ahead. Plan how you're going to enter back into school, finding other students who take similar precautions as you do.
“Other students are less concerned about the virus and more focused on their anxiety about the loss of normality, a loss of what they typically experience, whether they're a freshman or they're an upperclassman, and they're really focused on their angst about things just not being the same as they were. And those students need to be thinking about, again, making plans on how they can be safe but at the same time, maintain some degree of normalcy. Socializing with your friends. Campuses are designed and built as being communities - close-knit, tight communities - and so it's going to be a challenge. It's going to be a very difficult challenge for students to have some semblance of normalcy during this time.”
What advice do you have for parents worried about their children going to college during a pandemic?
Gutterman: “For the parents, I think it's important to first of all listen before you impart your anxiety and concerns to your children or young adults. Hear from them. What are their concerns or their anxieties? Have an understanding of where they're coming from first and foremost…
“If you have concerns and you want to be able to talk to them about it - that's important to do, but don't impose your anxiety on them. You want to give them some sense of confidence, that you have faith that they'll make good decisions. But talk about what it means to make good decisions. Help them plan this out a little bit. There are things you can anticipate that they may not be able to anticipate that they'll be facing.
“So work with them, keep the open dialogue going, making sure that there's going to be good communication back and forth. That will help ease the parents' angst if they know that their young adults, as they launch off, will call them with concerns…
“It’s also important that both parents and students know that almost all schools have counseling centers. Make sure you’re aware of how to access those counseling centers, because they do have staff who will be there available to talk with students and parents if they're having any difficulties at all.”
If students start to feel like they may have been exposed to this virus, what are the steps that they need to take?
Snider: “I’m mentioning what Doctor Gutterman mentioned – it's good to know what your student health center’s clinic is, and also to know that if you're starting to have symptoms, it is best to stay in your dorm room and contact [student health services] to make an appointment so that they can anticipate you coming in for your evaluation of your symptoms. I know a lot of the universities have protocols in place to ensure that the student will get evaluated and get tested.
“And then a lot of the universities are also creating spaces where if a student needs to be quarantined from the rest of their hall mates or their suite mates, that they get placed in a different room so that it can ensure that they are not potentially exposing further students to COVID-19. And also, the universities are really working hard on anticipating how to do contact tracing and ensuring that they can test and also identify other people that may have been exposed to students.” |
|
|
|
|
|
August 9th:
International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples
From colonialism to COVID-19, Indigenous peoples show resilience in the face of evictions |
|
|
|
|
|
Members of the Ogiek nation in the Mau Forest in Kenya. Photo: Jason Taylor/ILC |
|
|
|
August 9th was celebrated globally as the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. This article highlights the day's significance and honors the immeasurable contributions and resilience of Indigenous communities across the globe.Today is the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. It is a day dedicated to celebrate and honour the cultures, history and rights of the 476 million Indigenous peoples across the globe. With special emphasis this year on resilience in the face of COVID-19, it’s time to turn the spotlight on the strength and dignity of Indigenous peoples and acknowledge the contribution they make protecting our planet. Forests, wildlife and biodiversity managed by Indigenous peoples and local communities are critical in preventing future pandemics. Further, they store 37.7 billion tonnes of carbon – more than the world’s 2013 emissions of CO2 from fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes. Yes, the role that Indigenous peoples have always played as the guardians of our planet benefits all humanity. But even more importantly, it is their right to be there, to have peace of mind and a sense of security over their homelands.
Over recent months, we have seen a rise in global consciousness, with many people waking up to the fact that most economies have been built on the basis of exclusion, discrimination, and exploitation of peoples and communities. Movements such as Black Lives Matter are shining light on the systemic racism and inequity that are embedded in the bones of our societies. This has been the historic struggle of Indigenous peoples and many other communities, having endured centuries of dispossession and ethnic violence undermining their dignity and wellbeing.As people take to the streets in parts of the world to protest for justice and equity, we’re seeing an alarming trend where Indigenous peoples and communities are being hit with the “same old” threat of land grabbing, only now under the guise and cover of a government sanctioned lockdown. This in turn facilitates the impunity of such evictions and puts displaced communities at a higher risk of being exposed to the global pandemic in a vicious cycle. Defending the planet has never been more deadly for Indigenous peoples. Data released last week by Global Witness shows that 40% of the land and environmental defenders who lost their lives in 2019 were from Indigenous communities.Looking ahead to recovery from the pandemic, we fear an acceleration of evictions. Governments trying to kick-start economies may ignore high social and environmental costs and target Indigenous peoples and local communities’ lands and territories, which are rich in biodiversity and resources. Strong evidence of this has been gathered by the Defending Land and Environmental Defenders Coalition –among them, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, Frontline Defenders, Global Witness, the World Resources Institute and the International Land Coalition– using LANDex, a global monitoring system dedicated to democratizing land data, to document COVID-related repression, violence and reprisals against defenders.In Kenya, Ogiek and Sengwer Indigenous communities have been systematically forced from their forests since British colonization. History keeps repeating itself, as the Kenyan government evicts them from their homes even in the midst of the current outbreak. For the Ogiek, not even the gained restitution of their legitimate rights, as decided by the Africa Court on Peoples and Human Rights, could stop this injustice.Meanwhile in Nepal, houses belonging to Indigenous Chepang people are being burned to the ground by Chitwan National Park authorities, despite having legal rights to live there. The catastrophe has displaced around 60 families, leaving them homeless in times of heavy rains and a global pandemic.Amidst the COVID-19 lockdown, forest officials of the Odisha Forest Department in India unjustly evicted 32 Kondh adivasi families of Nehela village under Jugsaipatna Panchayat in the Kalahandi district on 24th April 2020. The victims’ houses were forcibly dismantled without prior notice, and their belongings thrown to the ground.Conservation continues to be used as a justification for these evictions, despite the recognized role Indigenous peoples and local communities play in protecting our planet’s biodiversity. Many national parks and conservation areas are run jointly by governments and conservation organizations in a way that prevents Indigenous peoples from using these areas for their livelihoods and cultural practices. This approach is unjust and inconsistent with the urgent need for a holistic and sustainable way to manage and conserve resources – an approach based on the reciprocal and interdependent relationship between humanity and nature, as practiced by Indigenous peoples.As we move towards a post-Covid world, we will see an increased pressure for fast economic gain at the expense of people and nature. There is always, however, a more inclusive path to re-building our economies, that emphasizes sustainable use of natural resources, respects human rights and addresses systemic causes of inequality. We need to hold accountable those who harm our environment and give decision making power to those who are protecting it, so they can live in dignity and peace. Although it may take longer, it will be more sustainable for the long haul and of course, better for our planet.Author Bios:Joan Carling is an Indigenous activist from the Cordillera, Philippines, and co-convenor of the Indigenous Peoples’ Major Group (IPMG), co-director of the Indigenous Peoples Rights International (IPRI), and leads a global campaign against the criminalization of and impunity against Indigenous peoples: https://www.indigenousrightsinternational.org/
|
|
|
|
|
|
August Food Distribution this Thursday! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
North Carolina COVID-19 Cases
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) reports 136,844 COVID-19 cases, 2,172 deaths, and 1,111 hospitalizations, as of August 11, 2020. For more information regarding live updates (NCDHHS updates the site every day at noon), please visit the NCDHHS website.
Orange County Health Department also has a COVID-19 dashboard webpage, with information on COVID-19 data in the county. The dashboard will be updated every Tuesday and Thursday.
There are currently 1,353 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Orange County, and 47 deaths.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
COVID-19 Community Resources
For more information on COVID-19 community resources in the county, please visit our webpage. Resources on specific topic areas, such as food access, education, housing, and others, are all accessible on our website, or at the links below.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share via Email
