So I know most of us probably saw the email the provost sent out today saying that campus could only reopen if the university would be shown to be able to reach the Phase 4 requirements of Pritzker’s reopening plan, and I saw a couple comments wondering whether or not we could possibly reach that phase soon. The earliest any regions in Illinois can move to Phase 4 is June 26, and given the fact that the a decision on the fall semester will be announced mid-June , the administration could be holding out hope that Illinois could reach phase 4 in time for the fall semester to start if they decide that we’re going to do hybrid classes. That being said, for those that are curious, I looked up the data IDPH posted today to see how close we were to potentially reaching phase 4

In order to reach phase 4, there must be:

An overall covid positive test rate of no more than 20%, as well as an increase of no more than 10% in the positive test rate over the last 14 days

A 14% availability rate of regular hospital beds , ICU beds and ventilators each

No overall increase in the percentage of hospital admissions over the past 28 days. Stability in this metric is also acceptable- so if there was maybe a 2% increase, that would still be fine.

Champaign Urbana is in the Central Region according to IDPH, and as of today, this is where the region stands

Our Covid positive test rate is 2%. Over the past 14 days the percentage of positive tests has decreased 1%

We have 46% of hospital beds, 50% of ICU beds and 78% of ventilators available

Our overall hospital admissions are down 14%

As it is right now, the central region is on track to reach phase 4 by the end of June. Of course, the data changes every day. That’s to be expected. Some days, the data will be a bit more promising than others. But if the trends continue as they are going right now, I’m hopeful that we can return to campus in the fall.

Stay safe everyone