Eastern upgrades COVID19 measures

CHENEY – With the novel coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak growing, officials at Eastern Washington University have taken additional steps to safeguard students, faculty and staff from possible contact with the virus.

While no cases have been reported on campus, university officials announced changes last week to winter quarter final exams, asking faculty to forego in-person finals during the scheduled exam week of March 17-20 and instead hold those finals online. If online finals were not possible, faculty could hold those exams in-person March 9-13.

Eastern also announced it would be hiring 10-12 additional temporary custodians to work part-time, up to 29 hours a week each, to help facilitate extra cleaning of university facilities. It’s also in the process of ordering “specialized” cleaning equipment and supplies.

“They’re going to be helping campus-wide to make sure everything gets a good cleaning,” EWU media coordinator Dave Meany said of the additional custodians. “We clean all bathrooms every night so this will ensure a more vigorous cleaning all over.”

Eastern officials provided no specifics on how long the additional custodians would be employed or on the additional costs to the university of the extra help, supplies and equipment.

Campus dining options remain open for regular service, but beginning March 16, the Union Market in the Pence Union Building will discontinue all self-serve and salad bar options, placing those services behind the counter.

Eastern is also taking measures on international travel by students, faculty and staff. Officials are arranging for the immediate return of all EWU students studying abroad. Meany said this was about a dozen, scattered in Spain, Germany, Japan, Ireland, Canada, England and Costa Rica.

According to information from the John Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering’s “Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Case” live website, all of those countries were reporting cases of the virus.

“A good chunk (of the students) were heading back this month anyway as their terms were expiring,” Meany said. “There might be 1-2 who chose to stay on their own.”

The university has issued instructions warning against traveling abroad and canceled until further notice any university-sponsored trips for faculty and staff to China, Iran, Italy, South Korea and Japan. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has issued level 2 or higher travel health notices for these countries.

EWU stated on its website that should faculty and staff traveling abroad find themselves in a quarantine situation, “the university will not be able to intervene and bring you home until that quarantine has been lifted and you have been cleared to travel.”

According to the Johns Hopkins site there have been 116,694 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, resulting in 4,258 deaths with 64,391 recoveries. There have been 793 confirmed cases in the U.S. with 28 deaths, not counting six deaths on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, with Washington state having the highest number of deaths at 23, with one recovery out of 167 reported cases.

The city of Cheney has also implemented steps to take should an outbreak occur at Eastern, within the school district or the community. City Administrator Mark Schuller said that involves preparing for “business continuity” among its staff, beginning with limiting public safety officers that respond to a medical call with symptoms consistent with COVID-19.

Schuller said the county dispatch center is collecting that data on the emergency call and attaches a code as part of its notification to the appropriate jurisdiction for response. Cheney would also consider having certain “back office personnel” work from home if a threat materializes.

“We can’t just shut our operation own as we are here to serve our community and keep the city operating even if it is with minimal staffing,” Schuller said. “Luckily, we have great mutual aid partners across the county, so I have no doubt that if we were short people, we could count on our neighboring agencies to help us, just like we will help them.”

Symptoms associated with COVID-19 may occur as quickly as two days of contact or as long as 14 days, and include fever, cough, difficulty breathing along with nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, although the latter is rare.

MORE INFORMATION

Additional measures Eastern Washington University is taking to safeguard against an outbreak of the COVID-19 virus.

 Making sure hand sanitizers are filled with 70 percent alcohol product in the PHASE, the URC and the PUB.

 Thirty new free-standing hand sanitizer dispensers to be placed strategically across campus as needed.

 Deep cleaning the campus during spring break.

 Using Protexus electrostatic disinfectant “guns” and disinfectant product on touch points in all building daily.  An additional 24 of these cleaning tools have been ordered.

 Deep cleaning during break will concentrate on other touch points including:  door handles, classroom chairs, teachers’ podiums, hand san & soap dispensers, fridge handles and microwave buttons, kitchen cabinet/drawer handles, handicapped door buttons, hand rails, hallway chair arms and backs as well as regular restrooms and public area cleaning.

 Prioritize heavily used building like the PHASE, URC and PUB.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.