Prospective
University
of
Michigan student David Chu was
looking forward to touring the
University’s campus for his first
time before making a college
decision — until the coronavirus
outbreak changed his plans.
Chu is from a suburb near
Chicago,
Illinois,
and
was
accepted to the Ross School of
Business.
Because
of
campus
event closures due to the COVID-
19 pandemic, however, he was
unable to visit the University,
which made his decision on which
college to attend more difficult.
“There are a lot of schools that
I applied to that I wasn’t really
sure, and even now, there are a lot
of schools that I feel like I need to
visit in order to make my decision,
and Michigan is one of them,” Chu
said. “Not being able to visit the
schools does make it harder for
me to decide.”
The University canceled all
in-person
admissions
events
and is no longer conducting
tours during the pandemic. The
University’s
admissions
staff
remains fully available by phone
and email.
Betsy
Brown,
director
of
integrated
marketing
communications at the Office of
Enrollment Management, wrote
in an email to The Daily that
students should remain in contact
with the University despite the
distance.
“We do want prospective and
admitted students to stay in touch
with us,” Brown wrote. “In many
cases our admissions counselors
are reaching out individually
to students to address any of
their questions or concerns. We
also remain virtually open and
available if students want to
contact us.”
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Prospective students face difficult college
decisions in light of national college closures
Outbreak of COVID
leaves matriculants
unable to tour ‘U’
campus, Ann Arbor
DESIGN BY DORY TUNG
See TOURS, Page 3A
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INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 96
©2020 The Michigan Daily
N E W S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 A
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 A
A RT S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5A
S TAT E M EN T. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1B
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GOVERNMENT
Tuesday afternoon, Sen. Gary
Peters, D-Mich., held the first of
two telephone town halls on the
COVID-19 pandemic open to the
public.
On the call, Peters discussed
Michigan’s
expansion
of
unemployment
benefits,
ways
residents
can
help
health
care workers access personal
protective equipment, plans to
minimize the pandemic’s impact
on the economy and the direction
of future legislative efforts.
Town hall highlights
details of legislation
Sen. Peters
talks federal
relief effort
Michigan Medicine preps for virus peak
Indoor track facility on State Street to be made into field hospital to cope with influx of patients
Michigan Medicine presented
projections
on
how
social
distancing will impact the number
of patients hospitalized for COVID-
19 at its peak and noted plans to
convert an indoor track facility
into a field hospital during a virtual
press
conference
on
Tuesday
afternoon.
Vikas Parekh, associate chief
for
Medical,
Emergency
and
Psychiatry Services at Michigan
Medicine, said social distancing
has beneficial long-term effects on
the number of infected people.
“The
number
of
Michigan
residents that will be infected with
COVID-19 is likely to get worse
before it gets better,” Parekh said.
“There’s a high risk that it will
overload our health care system.
But this doesn’t mean that social
distancing isn’t working — it just
means we need to give it time to
have impact.”
Keith
Dickey,
chief
strategy
officer for Michigan Medicine,
said they expect to reach capacity
at their hospitals in the next two
weeks.
In order to account for this surge
in patients, Dickey said they are
looking to create field hospitals. He
noted this would be a “Step Down
Unit” for patients who are generally
stable but cannot return home.
“We are now assessing locations
outside of the four walls of our
hospitals, on our athletic campus,
for the potential to create a field
hospital of 500 beds or more,”
Dickey said. “The initial location
we are evaluating and prepping for
is in the indoor track at the facility
on State Street.”
Dickey said they are aiming to
have an initial field hospital up by
April 9 or 10.
Parekh
noted
the
data
and
projections presented are based on
worst-case scenario models where
the most people possible become
infected.
The first model demonstrated
that
with
“aggressive
social
distancing,” the peak would be on
May 16 with 3,179 hospitalized,
compared to a peak of 5,860
hospitalized on May 4 with less
social distancing.
See SENATOR, Page 2A
KRISTINA ZHENG
Daily Staff Reporter
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
See HOSPITAL, Page 3A
EMMA STEIN
Daily News Editor
CELENE PHILIP
For The Daily
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