{"id":14527,"date":"2020-03-05T21:49:11","date_gmt":"2020-03-06T03:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/?p=14527"},"modified":"2020-03-19T20:40:56","modified_gmt":"2020-03-20T02:40:56","slug":"voluntary-quarantines-follow-concerns-of-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/2020\/03\/05\/voluntary-quarantines-follow-concerns-of-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Voluntary quarantines follow concerns of COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Harding University Florence (HUF) group returned\u00a0 Feb. 29, and students entered voluntary quarantine. Following instructions from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) directed the students to avoid public spaces, remain at home and try to minimize interactions with family members until March 14, until the incubation period of COVID-19 passed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sophomore HUF student, Everett Kirkman, said her two grandmothers in Searcy are in the higher risk group for COVID-19 infection, which played a role in her voluntary quarantine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do want to see them, and I know they want to see me, but I want to be responsible,\u201d Kirkman said. \u201cAnd if I am a carrier of it [COVID-19], which I could be even if I\u2019m not showing symptoms, I don\u2019t want to be the one that gets one of them sick.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do want to see them, and I know they want to see me, but I want to be responsible.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

HUF students returned home to 10 states: Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana and South Carolina. The state health departments of New York, Oklahoma, Colorado, South Carolina and Arkansas requested travelers returning from Italy to enter voluntarily quarantine in their own homes, while the rest of the states advised returning travelers to follow CDC recommendations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RELATED: Harding cancels all international spring break mission trips to uncertainty surrounding global health<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the National Conference of State Legislations, both the federal and state governments have the right to legally enforce quarantine and isolation related to contagious diseases. The ADH is currently monitoring 64 travelers with daily check-ins and investigating two possible cases of COVID-19. While quarantine in Arkansas is voluntary for returning travelers who may not be infected, the state government does retain the right to involve law enforcement if infected people refuse medical advice. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson addressed the concern surrounding COVID-19  in a press conference Feb. 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe go about our business, we spend our money, we drive the economy and we conduct business because there\u2019s no confirmed cases in Arkansas,\u201d Hutchinson said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s important that we go about our daily lives without fear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Health advisers across the U.S. advised citizens to avoid panicking as COVID-19 continues to spread. Associate professor of nursing Karen Kelley,  said people in the Searcy community should not worry, but practice basic health precautions and wash their hands regularly. The best place to find information and prevention procedures regarding the virus is on the CDC website, Kelley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My opinion is you should probably be prepared\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy opinion is you should probably be prepared,\u201d Kelley said. \u201cThe CDC, they\u2019re recommending \u2014 and I think it\u2019s probably a good recommendation \u2014 to be prepared to stay home for two weeks. In other words, have food for two weeks and have supplies that you need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RELATED: Students depart from international program two months earlier than planned amid coronavirus concerns<\/a>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Harding University Florence (HUF) group returned\u00a0 Feb. 29, and students entered voluntary quarantine. Following instructions from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Arkansas Department of Health…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15175,"featured_media":14529,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14527"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14545,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14527\/revisions\/14545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}