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Baylor students adapt plans for Thanksgiving Break amid COVID-19 pandemic

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For many Baylor students, Thanksgiving has traditionally been a time to come home and see family, friends, and loved ones before returning for finals. But this year, the coronavirus pandemic has forced them to make especially difficult decisions about their plans for the holiday as the nation encounters a spike in COVID-19 cases.

The New York Times reported on Monday that there were over 136,000 new cases of COVID-19 in the United States on the day before. In McLennan County on Sunday, the weekly positivity rate average of coronavirus cases was 13% with 101 current hospitalizations related to the virus.

In late June, President Linda Livingstone announced revisions to the academic calendar in an email to Baylor students and parents. Among the changes included a shortened Thanksgiving break and an online transition to remaining semester coursework following the holiday.

“All of this is being done to maximize in-person instructional opportunities and to minimize student travel during the fall and its attendant risk of COVID-19 spread,” Livingstone wrote.

San Antonio sophomore Alice Shelly typically spends the Wednesday before Thanksgiving cooking with her grandmother in preparation for a large dinner.

“Thanksgiving is a big deal in my family. I’m from San Antonio, and so typically all of my family will gather in one of the homes,” Shelly said via Zoom on Sunday, Nov. 22. “And so, it’s gathering in one space. There’s 25 of us and this year that would not be a safe decision to do with Covid.”

Shelly said she and her family decided to change their plans and adapt to the coronavirus pandemic.

“My plan is to go home— I tested negative this week but I’m also going to get a rapid test on the way home,” Shelly said. “We are going to gather as 10 of us outside and then I’ll cook via Zoom with my grandmother.”

In an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Nov. 22, White House Coronavirus Task Force member Dr. Anthony Fauci advised the public to limit their Thanksgiving gatherings to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.

“What you don't want to see is another spike in cases as we get colder and colder into December and then you start dealing with the Christmas holiday,” Fauci said. “We can really be in a very difficult situation. So, you want to tell people to please seriously consider decisions that you make.”

Lagos, Nigeria junior Chine Okeke has usually stayed with a family member in either Houston or Dallas for Thanksgiving. This year, Okeke planned to stay home to help protect an elderly member of her family’s household amidst the pandemic.

“We just didn’t want to like take the risk that I would bring something or anything like that,” Okeke said in a Zoom interview on Saturday, Nov. 21. “They’ve all been together since March so they don’t want any new people coming in.”

Okeke said that she has been staying in Waco with her friend since March and only comes to campus for her work and one in-person class. She said that she is worried about the spread of COVID-19 among students during Thanksgiving given what she has seen so far among her classmates.

“I had a class project and one of my group members tested positive for Covid last week,” Okeke said. “So I don’t know if it’s that people are not doing, you know, social distancing and things as much, but I feel like if the cases don’t go up before we go then they’re going to go up after.”

While some students will be staying home through finals and Christmas, others returned to Waco. Houston junior Andrew Cornejo is a community leader at Martin Residence Hall who planned on returning to campus after the break.

“They require us to come back because there will be a few residents here, so we have to be back here and make sure everything is okay,” Cornejo said in a Zoom interview on Sunday, Nov. 22.

Cornejo said that he was concerned about what his residents and other students are doing over the break. Some residents of Martin Hall were quarantined at the beginning of the semester following an outbreak of COVID-19 in the residence hall.

“They’re going to do what they’re going to do over the break. They’ll probably be going to all of these different places and coming into contact with lots of different people,” Cornejo said. “I am a little concerned with that because at the beginning of the year Martin had that Covid scare and I really don’t want to repeat that.”

Town and Country, Mo. senior Alex Lawrence also planned on returning to Waco to be with roommates and take finals in a more controlled environment. Lawrence said in a Zoom interview on Monday, Nov. 23 that planning travel during the break as an out-of-state student was difficult given the different circumstances this year.

“I was supposed to fly back here on Monday afternoon, and because travel’s down there’s a lack of flight options,” Lawrence said. “So it was either come back on Saturday or stay until Tuesday, and then, you know, that’s disrupting my finals schedule…and so I guess there’s a little bit of frustration with having to plan around that.”

Lawrence said that he was one of the over 1,400 positive cases of COVID-19 at Baylor this semester. He said that he was not insistent on taking a COVID-19 test before traveling because health officials advised him that taking one was not necessary within three months of his diagnosis.

“I was trying to be careful with if I false positive because I’ve had it within three months and then I’m going to have to quarantine, my roommates are going to have to quarantine,” Lawrence said. “I guess starting in January I’ll be outside of that window and so will probably, you know, be more lenient towards, getting tested.”

Baylor’s COVID-19 Health Management Team sent an email on Nov. 13 outlining safety recommendations for Thanksgiving. The team said that no-cost COVID-19 rapid testing would be available to Baylor students, faculty and staff before leaving campus for the break with results becoming available within an hour after a test. Despite the testing availability, the team still warned the Baylor community that testing was not the only precaution it needed to take.

“A negative test is not a license to end other preventative measures such as mask-wearing and physical distancing,” the team wrote. “It will take all of us doing our part to minimize the risk of COVID-19 exposure or infection to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe over the holidays.”

McAllen senior Pato Pena said on Saturday, Nov. 21 via Zoom that he was going to utilize Baylor’s resources before driving home. Pena said that his family usually attends his brother’s soccer tournament in Austin instead of hosting a Thanksgiving dinner. This year, Pena’s family will have a Thanksgiving dinner for the first time in seven years before attending this year’s tournament.

“I’m going to drive down on Wednesday after classes and my Covid test I have scheduled and then be there Thursday,” Pena said before the break. “We’ll have the dinner Friday in the afternoon and we’re going to leave to Austin.”

Regardless of their Thanksgiving plans, students interviewed were generally worried about the spread of COVID-19 over the academic break among students. Okeke said that she was worried about whether students were being tested before heading for the holiday.

“I’m worried about their families,” Okeke said. “I don’t even know if people have been doing what they’re supposed to do, but I’ve been encouraging people to do the rapid testing.”

Shelly encouraged students to be mindful of COVID-19 and considerate of at-risk family members during the holiday season.

“I think it’s our responsibility to take care of our grandparents if we’re seeing them, parents as well,” Shelly said. “Taking those precautions to protect them is very important to me and I think Baylor students should be thinking about their grandparents this Thanksgiving.”

While most students interviewed for this story had their Thanksgiving breaks go as expected, some of them expressed uncertainty about their plans for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

Lawrence said in a Zoom interview on Monday that his Thanksgiving break went as planned but his family was still deciding how to spend their holiday season.

“My parents would kind of like to have just the six of us go back to Florida, and then that way we’re out of town, and then we can just use that as the excuse for not hosting everybody,” Lawrence said. “My brothers and I would kind of like to just go home, even if it’s just the six of us at home in St. Louis having Christmas in our own home like we normally do in our own house.”

Pena also said in a Zoom interview on Saturday that his plan to return to McAllen and visit Austin was a success. Pena said that while his family normally alternates between visiting family in Monterrey, Mexico, and McAllen for Christmas and New Year’s, things will look different this year as a result of COVID-19.

“I think this year nobody really wants to travel for New Year’s either, so I think we’re just going to do Christmas and New Year’s in McAllen,” Pena said.

As cases of the coronavirus continue to rise nationally, other students said that their sentiments about the virus continued to linger after Thanksgiving.

Okeke said in an interview via Zoom on Monday that what she actually saw Baylor’s Thanksgiving break shaped her views.

“I think the cases will go up, probably,” Okeke said. “I think, honestly, I know more people who didn’t really do much than people who did things, so I feel like families and parents and things are more conscious even as students aren’t.”

Shelly agreed with Okeke and said in a Zoom interview on Monday that while her festivities were socially distant and responsible, she is still worried about the spread of the virus among students and their families.

“It’s hard to add to it because we don’t know the effect of Thanksgiving yet, but we will see what the rise is,” Shelly said.