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IU Fall Semester to be in-person
This week, Indiana University President Michael McRobbie announced plans to begin the Fall Semester in-person on all IU campuses. He stated that it’s expected that public health policies may need to remain in place, but it’s expected that the Fall semester will see a return to mostly normal operations. McRobbie said that the decision was made on the basis of advice from IU’s medical and public health experts who have been leading the university’s comprehensive and successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Current ongoing mitigation and symptomatic testing data continue to show that COVID-19 cases on IU campuses are very low and remain manageable. For much of the fall and winter, weekly positivity rates fell below 1 percent. IU’s Pandemic Response Labs are now conducting up to 50,000 tests per week.
Cameras allowed to help enforce penalties for passing school buses
Indiana drivers could face higher fines for illegally passing stopped school buses under a bill the state Senate passed Tuesday. Like cameras that already capture images of drivers speeding and running red lights, the measure authored by Republican Sen. Rick Niemeyer would allow police to cite drivers based on photos taken by cameras affixed to some school buses’ stop sign arms instead of having to witness such violations themselves. Under the bill, a first stop-arm violation would be a Class B infraction accompanied by a fine of up to $1,000. Any subsequent violations would be Class A infractions with fines of up to $10,000 per incident. The Senate approved the bill in a 38-11 vote and advanced it to the House.
State may fine those providing Covid Vaccinations prematurely
This week, Indiana officials announced they’re cracking down on clinics that are vaccinating Hoosiers for COVID-19 who are not eligible under the state’s guidelines. Teachers recently complained on social media that they’d been taken off vaccine wait lists around Indiana after state officials ordered vaccination sites to do so. State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box said the state regularly communicates with vaccine providers, and said it clarifies the guidelines and cautions sites from violating them before taking punitive action.