MACOMB/MOLINE, IL – As the “to mask or not to mask” debate rages on amidst the ongoing pandemic Western Illinois University Law Enforcement and Justice Administration (LEJA) Professor Dean Alexander, who also leads WIU’s Homeland Security Research Program, and LEJA Professor Christopher Bitner have researched the challenges of mask enforcement. Their work was recently published in the June issue of Security magazine. In May 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced a significant change in its COVID-19 mask mandated policy. Namely, the CDC stated that... Read More

MACOMB/MOLINE, IL – Western Illinois University-Macomb COVID-19 summer test clinics will be held from 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, through Thursday, Aug. 12, in the University Union Sandburg Lounge. Fall 2021 test clinic times and days will be announced prior to the start of the fall semester, which is set to begin Monday, Aug. 23. WIU-Macomb faculty, staff and students will have the SHIELD Illinois fast-turnaround saliva-based COVID-19 tests created by the University of Illinois available. The SHIELD test requires individuals to deposit a small amount of saliva in a vial,... Read More

On June 14, when “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” returned to live audiences at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New Work City, everyone attending had to prove they were fully vaccinated against Covid. Same when Bruce Springsteen returned to Broadway on June 26. More than 500 U.S. colleges and universities also are requiring proof of Covid vaccination for students to return to campus this fall, but that number does not include any school yet in the Quad-Cities. St. Ambrose University in Davenport is strongly recommending that all students, faculty, and staff be vaccinated for the Covid-19 virus,... Read More

MACOMB/MOLINE, IL – Western Illinois University-Macomb COVID-19 summer test clinics will be held from 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, through Thursday, Aug. 12, in the University Union Sandburg Lounge. Fall 2021 test clinic times and days will be announced prior to the start of the fall semester, which is set to begin Monday, Aug. 23. WIU-Macomb faculty, staff and students will have the SHIELD Illinois fast-turnaround saliva-based COVID-19 tests created by the University of Illinois available. The SHIELD test requires individuals to deposit a small amount of saliva in a vial,... Read More

There’s been fantastic news in regard to covid cases in Illinois and the Quad-Cities! Yesterday, we reported that Genesis Health Systems was reporting no hospitalizations from covid. Today, the Rock Island County Health Department reports no new cases of COVID-19. The total number of cases remains at 14,998. Currently, there are no patients hospitalized in the county with the virus. The total number of deaths remains at 333. “We are happy there are no new cases to report today,” said Nita Ludwig, administrator of the Rock Island County Health Department. “We feel that our vaccination... Read More

Good news on the Quad-Cities covid front! This morning for the first time in 466 days, Genesis Health System has no COVID-19 positive patients hospitalized. The last time Genesis hospitals did not have a COVID-positive patient was March 13, 2020, when Genesis had its first positive patient hospitalized. Since everyone hospitalized with any condition is tested, there may be Patients Under Investigation (PUI) in the hospital, but there are no COVID-19 patients who have tested positive this morning. More great news; the symptomatic 7-day positive rate has dipped to less than one percent at 0.95%,... Read More

MACOMB/MOLINE, IL – Western Illinois University-Macomb COVID-19 summer test clinics will be held from 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, through Thursday, Aug. 12, in the University Union Sandburg Lounge. Fall 2021 test clinic times and days will be announced prior to the start of the fall semester, which is set to begin Monday, Aug. 23. WIU-Macomb faculty, staff and students will have the SHIELD Illinois fast-turnaround saliva-based COVID-19 tests created by the University of Illinois available. The SHIELD test requires individuals to deposit a small amount of saliva in a vial,... Read More

It was mid-March of last year when we first heard the news. There was going to be a shutdown. But what did that mean? None of us had ever lived through anything like that. What was that even going to entail? How would our lives change, if at all? Already, events had started to get canceled. Sports games for kids. School. Arts activities. Concerts. Theater shows. Everything was going on hold for a couple of weeks. But it was just going to be a couple of weeks. A month, max. And, hell, it was winter, the weather was terrible anyway, we weren’t going to be going outside as it was. It wasn’t... Read More

BREAKING NEWS: Illinois will reopen tomorrow after over a year in various stages of covid lockdown! Governor JB Pritzker announced earlier this week that the metrics had been met to put Illinois into Phase 5, which is the least restrictive of all the mitigation phases for the pandemic. So what does that mean for you? How will your life change, for the better, with fewer restrictions? And what restrictions, if any, still remain? According to the Illinois Department of Health, under Phase 5 (the new phase), fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask except where required... Read More

BREAKING NEWS: At long last, after the pandemic has kept the state under lockdown for most of the past year-plus, Illinois is looking to reopen (mostly) on Friday. “After a tremendously challenging year, Illinois has now reached a defining moment in our efforts to defeat COVID-19,” Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said. “Thanks to the hard work of residents across the state, Illinois will soon resume life as we knew it before – returning to events, gatherings, and a fully reopened economy, with some of the safety guidelines we’ve adopted still in place.” According to the Illinois Department... Read More