Coro­n­avirus Af­fects Bethel and Lo­cal Com­mu­nity

MISHAWAKA- Coro­n­avirus is at­tack­ing the health of thou­sands of in­di­vid­u­als across the globe and im­pact­ing busi­nesses, com­mu­ni­ties and our health­care sys­tems. 

“[Coro­n­avirus is] a new dis­ease that causes res­pi­ra­tory ill­ness in peo­ple and can spread from per­son to per­son,” ac­cord­ing to Goshen Hos­pi­tal. (https://​goshen­health.com/​health-li­brary/​coro­n­avirus-covid-19)  

Many in­di­vid­u­als, es­pe­cially at the be­gin­ning of the out­break, asked what the dif­fer­ence is be­tween the flu and COVID-19 are and used this ques­tion to down­play the sit­u­a­tion.  

But there is a dif­fer­ence: we know how to treat the flu. In­fluenza is an old en­emy, and health­care providers know many things about how it works, how to treat it and how to make vac­ci­na­tions to fight against it. (https://​www.live­science.com/​new-coro­n­avirus-com­pare-with-flu.html ) 

 “COVID-19 is the wild­card in terms of how it has spread and how many deaths it will cause.”  

The World Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion has recorded over 266,073 con­firmed cases around the world, and a to­tal of 11,184 deaths as of Mar. 21. On Mar. 19, South Bend of­fi­cials de­clared an ad­vi­sory against nonessen­tial trav­el­ing with five to­tal con­firmed COVID-19 cases in St. Joseph County. (https://​www.south­bendtri­bune.com/​news/​lo­cal/​south-bend-de­clares-emer­gency-warns-against-non-es­sen­tial-travel-amid/​ar­ti­cle_07a7be38-69f5-11ea-9b7a-bb3e951ac465.html)  

Bethel Uni­ver­sity is no stranger to the out­ward ef­fects of the coro­n­avirus; the school is clos­ing pre­ma­turely and classes will con­tinue on­line, as an­nounced on Mar. 20 through an email and video an­nounce­ment by Pres­i­dent Chenoweth.  

“It is with a heavy heart that we an­nounce the de­ci­sion for all classes to re­main on­line through the end of the spring se­mes­ter, in re­sponse to the COVID-19 cri­sis,” Chenoweth said. 

Bethel Uni­ver­sity is not alone in their re­sponse to COVID-19; Notre Dame, Holy Cross and In­di­ana Uni­ver­sity South Bend have all sus­pended in-per­son classes.  

Sev­eral lo­cal busi­nesses are closed and will not re­open un­til fur­ther no­tice; see here for a list of cur­rent busi­nesses that are closed: https://​www.abc57.com/​news/​stores-that-are-open-and-closed-amid-covid-19-con­cerns  

Hos­pi­tals around the area have started to im­ple­ment new rules about who can come into the build­ings. Both St. Joseph Re­gional Med­ical Cen­ter Hos­pi­tal and Goshen Hos­pi­tal are en­cour­ag­ing peo­ple to stay home un­less there is a true emer­gency and are dis­cour­ag­ing in­di­vid­u­als from go­ing to their pri­mary doc­tor’s of­fice with­out call­ing ahead first.  

COVID-19 is a se­ri­ous sit­u­a­tion; for more in­for­ma­tion, please stay up­dated by watch­ing for fu­ture ar­ti­cles from the Bea­con and other re­li­able news sources. 

Sources:  

Email from Stu­dent life  

https://​www.abc57.com/​news/​stores-that-are-open-and-closed-amid-covid-19-con­cerns

https://​www.live­science.com/​new-coro­n­avirus-com­pare-with-flu.html

https://​www.who.int/​emer­gen­cies/​dis­eases/​novel-coro­n­avirus-2019

https://​www.south­bendtri­bune.com/​news/​lo­cal/​south-bend-de­clares-emer­gency-warns-against-non-es­sen­tial-travel-amid/​ar­ti­cle_07a7be38-69f5-11ea-9b7a-bb3e951ac465.html

https://​goshen­health.com/​health-li­brary/​coro­n­avirus-covid-19

https://​www.sjmed.com/​health-and-well­ness/​coro­n­avirus-covid-19