News

60 New COVID-19 Cases Reported as University Extends Stay-at-Home Order

Despite the extension of the stay-at-home order, medical experts from the University and the Chicago Department of Public Health noted that there were “hopeful signs,” including the decline in positive cases and close contacts relative to last week.

By Michael McClure

April 18, 2021

Evening in Hyde Park.

The University reported 60 new cases of COVID-19 this week, according to an email sent by UChicago Forward to the campus community on Friday, April 16.

Thirty-three close contacts were reported in association with this week’s cases. Twenty-nine students are currently in on-campus isolation housing, and 26 are isolating off campus. These figures represent a marked decline from last week, when 97 positive cases and 112 close contacts were identified and 59 students were placed in isolation housing.

Thirty of the positive cases were detected from off-campus surveillance testing, which had a 0.60 percent positivity rate this week. The University received 57 UCAIR reports related to COVID-19 this week, up from 23 last week.

The update came just after the University announced a five-day extension of its stay-at-home order, now in effect until Wednesday, April 21. The stay-at-home order also applies to students living off campus in Chicago. Both the citywide and statewide positivity rates in Illinois rose to 5.8 percent this week, up from 5.2 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively.

A follow-up email sent Friday night by Housing and Residence Life to students living on campus announced that students scheduled to receive their surveillance tests on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday of this week must now get tested on Sunday, April 18. Residents of Renee Granville-Grossman Residential Commons and Woodlawn Residential Commons must report to 950 East 61st Street, while residents of Max Palevsky Residential Commons must report to Rosenwald Hall. The regular testing schedule will resume on Monday, April 26.

The UChicago Forward update also noted the City of Chicago’s plans to expand vaccine eligibility to all Chicagoans age 16 or older as the city moves into Phase 2 of vaccine distribution on Monday. The email mentioned that vaccine appointments are available at Chicago State University’s vaccination site in Roseland, Chicago, and across Northwest Indiana, where the vaccine supply is open to anyone regardless of residency.

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About the Contributor

Michael McClure, 2023-2024 Managing Editor

Managing Editor Michael McClure is a fourth-year from Buffalo, New York, studying political science and music at the College. Michael believes accurate writing is essential to conveying challenging truths with clarity and poise. It’s the principle that guides his work as an editor as well as the ideal he strives to follow in his reporting for The Maroon and elsewhere. Before becoming The Maroon's managing editor, Michael served as a reporter and editor in the News section, updating the campus community about major University news, covering rallies on the quad, and interviewing students and professors about groundbreaking initiatives on campus and in Hyde Park. He also served as a copy chief from 2021 to 2023 and copyedited more than 500 articles during his time in the section. Outside of UChicago, Michael moonlights as a motorsport journalist at Feeder Series and InsideF2, reporting and editing stories on domestic and international junior single-seater racing from Formula 2 to Formula 4. In whatever spare time he has left, Michael is usually practicing the piano, exploring American suburbia on Google Maps, going on adventures with friends and strangers, or planning trips to racing paddocks and faraway islands that will probably never come to fruition.