THURSDAY November 12, 2020
THE DAILY ILLINI
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Virus brings deadliest week
Vol. 150 Issue 24
Regional, county COVID-19 positivity rate continues to soar
BY ETHAN SIMMONS NEWS EDITOR
Another five Champaign County residents have died from COVID-19, the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District announced on Tuesday. It’s the most fatalities in a single day for the county since the pandemic began. The virus claimed the lives of a woman in her 60s, a woman in her 70s, two men in their 80s and a man in his 90s. According to CUPHD, 37
county residents have died from COVID-19 to date. Eight of those deaths have come in the last week. On Wednesday, CUPHD reported another 305 cases of COVID-19 in the county, though some were from previous days, administrator Julie Pryde confirmed. The active case count jumped by 178 on Wednesday, while another 109 people have been ordered to quarantine after exposure to a COVID-19-positive person. Eighty-four of the newly
confirmed cases came from ZIP code 61820, which covers most of campus. The same ZIP code holds 155 of the county’s 528 active cases. In all, Champaign County has reported 7,449 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, with more than 1,400 cases in the last two weeks. As of Wednesday, 901,881 tests had been conducted in the county and confirmed by CUPHD. Since July, 11,458 close contacts have been ordered
to quarantine by CUPHD. About 10.4% of them — 1,194 people — have tested positive for the virus after being ordered quarantine. Cases of the virus skew toward the younger crowd in C-U. More than 33% of people who’ve tested positive in the county — 2,521 of them — are between 10 and 20 years old. Another 2,084 cases come from people 20 to 30 years of age.
% Positivity rate
Champaign County sees eight new deaths from COVID-19
Region Six Champaign County
Source: Illinois Department of Public Health
@esimmsnews ecsimmon@dailyillini.com
CASSIDY BRANDT THE DAILY ILLINI
November surge breaks Food insecurity initiative heads to UI senate national, state records BY ALIZA MAJID
BY ETHAN SIMMONS
STAFF WRITER
NEWS EDITOR
Efforts to combat food insecurity in the Champaign will be addressed on the floor of the UI Senate on Nov. 15. The “Food Insecurity in Champaign County” resolution, co-authored by student activist Drake Materre, was passed by the Illinois student government earlier this semester. “University needs to sit down with community organizations to create a plan to utilize the resources that they have and create a program that can deliver its resources to high-risk individuals,” according to Materre. According to the University, they have been aware of the food insecurity issues affecting Champaign County and have partnered with various organizations in order to address these concerns. “In addition to food packaging events there are fundraising campaigns aimed at raising support for food assistance and well-being programs are ongoing and the Department of Food Science Human Nutrition conducts regional research concerning food inequities,” said Chantelle Thompson, director of marketing and communications at Student Affairs. The primary programs the University works with to combat food insecurity in the community are known as Waste No Food and Project for Less.
Food insecure people in Champaign County:
23,020 people Food insecurity rate in Champaign County:
Additional money required to meet food needs:
11% $12,015,000 Source: Feeding America CASSIDY BRANDT THE DAILY ILLINI
Waste No Food is a digital platform that allows University Housing to post leftover meals on a virtual board and notify local groups who may opt to accept the items. Project for Less is a studentled program hosted through the Wesley Food Pantry that allows volunteers to come to the dining halls to package family portions of food for donations to the pantry. Materre is focused on constructing this diversion program in order to help high-
risk individuals but has been focusing on domestic violence victims or survivors. The rate of domestic violence crimes in Champaign County is the fourth highest in the state of Illinois, and one of the main calls police receive in the county. “The diversion program will focus on transformative justice rehabilitation programs for the perpetrator and the survivor of domestic violence. There’s a lot of a lot of things that would go into it
such as discussions on masculinity and femininity, nutrition education, food preparation and cooking,” Materre said. Materre is currently running a nutrition education course for children who have become victims of domestic violence. This class helps individuals relieve stress and deal with their trauma. “I do believe children need to be involved in this conSEE FOOD | 3A
RSOs raise money for Ale’yah Lewis following arrest BY MONA ALRAZZAQ STAFF WRITER
University RSOs are raising money in order to provide a woman who was recorded being aggressively restrained by Champaign police in April with basic necessities as well as an experienced lawyer to defend her cases in court. After a 911 call involving a shooting incident in April, police officers were dispatched to East Colorado and South Cottage Grove avenues. Ale’yah Lewis, 21, was present at the scene along with her boyfriend, Kamorian Busby. Both Lewis and Busby were taken into custody at the scene. Cellphone footage that went viral as well
as released police body camera footage recorded Lewis’s arrest. The footage shows the beginning of the confrontation with a verbal exchange between Lewis and the officers where they were dispatched. It follows with officers restraining her aggressively by pushing her to the ground and punching her when she pulled away and resisted arrest. An investigation by Champaign’s State Attorney Julia Rietz, as well as independent firm Hillard Heintze hired to investigate the incident, resulted in conclusions that the officers involved followed the Urbana Police Department’s policy. Heintze rec-
ommended changes to the department’s policy after the investigation. Charges were not dropped against Lewis following the aggressive arrest, and additional charges for an unrelated incident were filed. Lewis’s next court date is scheduled for Nov. 17 at 9 a.m. A statement made by the University’s RSO Young Democratic Socialists of America says the video clearly shows Lewis was “brutally assaulted by the police.” They are attempting to raise money for a GoFundMe page created by Lewis’s friend, Meghan McDonald in order to assist Lewis. The fundraising page has raised $3,161 as of Nov. 10. Dat
Luu, sophomore in LAS and a member of YDSA, says the money raised from the fundraising site goes directly to providing food security and home security for Lewis as well as to obtain legal help for her court case. Lewis has received a copious amount of publicity ever since the video of her encounter with the police was released online without her consent, Luu said. He said because of this, Lewis has received hateful comments online and has had difficulty finding a job. “We wanna make sure that especially a victim of police brutality will be able to get
est weekly total since the early September surge on campus of more than 800 cases. UI is up to a seven-day average of more than 50 new cases per day, up from 10 new cases per day on Oct. 25. W hen someone tests positive for the virus in C-U, they must isolate for at least 10 days before being released. Those who’ve become positive recently may not be able to immediately return to their homes for fall break, which begins Nov. 20. Any close contacts of COVID-19-positive people must quarantine for 14 days post-exposure. Since Aug. 15, when the University ramped up testing as students moved back in, 3,507 people have tested for COVID-19 on campus. Meanwhile, November has brought a tidal wave of COVID-19 cases across the country. There have been more than 1 million new cases of the virus in just the first 10 days of the month. Hospitalizations are at an all-time high nationwide, with 61,964 as of Tuesday, according to the COVID-19 Tracking Project. Deaths aren’t where they were in April — more than 2,200 a day in April compared to about 990 per day now — but they’re a lagging indicator and steadily increasing. After surges in July, average death tolls of the virus topped 1,250 a day in early August before dropping again in September.
For the fifth straight day, Illinois has topped 10,000 new cases of COVID-19, blasting spring totals out of the water. Tuesday brought another record for the state: Over 12,600 new cases in 24 hours. Prior to Oct. 28, Illinois had never seen more than 6,000 cases in a day. Illinois also surpassed 100,000 tests in a single day on Tuesday, a new record. All 11 regions in the state, as defined by Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s reopening plan, have been moved back to Phase 3 as test positivity rates have surged. Champaign County is in Region 6, alongside 19 other counties in East Central Illinois. With UI tests, the region’s seven-day test positivity is 4.2%. Without them, it’s at 11.9% as of Saturday, far beyond the 8% threshold which triggers increased mitigations. In order to return to Phase 4 with indoor dining and other eased restrictions, the region would have to dip below a positivity rate of 6.5% for three consecutive days, excluding UI’s testing. Without the UI testing, Champaign County hit a seven-day positivity of 8.1% on Saturday. On Oct. 25, just two weeks ago, seven-day positivity stood at 4.7%. Back when Region 6 was ordered to return into mitigation measures two days afterward, it was at 5.2%. On campus, the virus spread isn’t great either. Last week, the University identified 360 new cases of @esimmsnews COVID-19 among students, ecsimmon@dailyillini.com faculty and staff, the high-
INSIDE
Opinions: Technology inspires Lovecraft
Sports: Andre Curbelo looks to quickly impact Illini
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