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By Sue Danielson, health services

The spread of coronavirus, now called COVID-19, is continuing to occur globally. As of Feb. 27, there were 82,294 confirmed cases and 2,804 deaths around the world. China accounts for 78,630 of the cases and 2,747 deaths. The U.S. currently has 14 confirmed cases, plus 45 cases of people who have been repatriated back to the U.S. from Wuhan, China, and from aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship. Recently, Italy, Iran, South Korea, and Japan have increased their alert levels due to increases in cases of COVID-19 in these countries.  

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) continue to closely monitor the situation both in the U.S. and abroad. Currently the risk for COVID-19 in the U.S. remains low. There are indications that person-to-person spread is occurring, most likely between close contacts. At this time, this virus is not currently spreading in the community in the U.S.

Two major events on the Viterbo campus are planned as part of the community education element of the university’s VOICE program— short for Vital Opioid Instruction through Community-based Experiential Training.

The VOICE program is made possible by a three-year, $741,201 grant Viterbo received in August 2019 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration Opioid Workforce Expansion Program. Debra Murray, director of counselor education, is project director for the VOICE initiative.

On Thursday, March 12, Viterbo will host its first VOICE Town Hall, an advocacy event related to policy issues focused on opioid and substance-use prevention, treatment and recovery services. As part of the grant, the VOICE program will have two such town hall events per year.

Thursday, Feb. 27

9–11 a.m. Campus Ministry Thursday Morning M.U.G. (Mingle, Unwind, Gather) – Murphy Center 340

12:15 p.m. Mass – San Damiano Chapel

Wednesday, Feb. 26

7:15 a.m. Ash Wednesday Mass and Distribution of Ashes – San Damiano Chapel

12:15 p.m. Ash Wednesday Mass and Distribution of Ashes – San Damiano Chapel. Classes are cancelled from 12:20–1:15 p.m.

1–2 p.m. APA Walk-in Hours – Academic Resource Center, Murphy Center 332

The Viterbo University D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership’s spring lecture series will continue at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 3, as actor and historian Joe Wiegand presents “An Evening with Teddy Roosevelt” in the Fine Arts Center Main Theatre.

Wiegand is considered the world’s premier Theodore Roosevelt repriser, and his portrayals of Roosevelt in live performance, on television, and in film are amazing. Wiegand has been featured as President Roosevelt in The Men Who Built America on the History Channel, served as the model for the newest Roosevelt sculpture at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and has a feature role in National Parks Adventure, a film about U.S. national parks still showing in IMAX theaters throughout the country. He has also performed at the White House. He has been named a Wilkins Scholar, a Harry S. Truman Scholar, and a Thomas J. Watson Fellow.

This is one in a series of student profiles to be featured in Connections. The profiles are part of a project to articulate the Viterbo difference through storytelling.