The hard times we are living in are not only a challenge for our physical health, but also our mental health. According to “Our World in Data”, 792 million people had a mental health disorder in 2017- and this was not even in the middle of a pandemic. There are studies that show how concerned mental health organizations are with the possible developments or with the aggravation of symptoms or conditions in times of quarantine and lockdown. 

Although some friends of mine are still going out and meeting other friends, I need to be extra careful because I’m part of a risk group due to a precondition and autoimmune systemic disease called Lupus. To be stuck, in my case is not only an act of solidarity with my grandparents or my stepfather, it is a matter of survival. Because the outside has become something so abstract and far away, I chose the pictures to be black and white, while the inside, which is my reality, is colorful. 

I’ve been stuck since March 10. When I first arrived in Rio, I needed to be in complete isolation in my room for 14 days. When I finally went out of my room, I felt the relief of being capable of walking around the house or just being able to touch things that other people touch. However, I still feel stuck, and I believe everyone else does too. You feel stuck at home, stuck in the news  you are stuck inside your building, your car and, most of all, stuck wanting to get out, to just leave and breathe some fresh air (without masks, will that ever be possible again?) 

I feel stuck, but I want to feel free again. I want to look at a view and be there if I want to, I want to hug my grandparents again, I want my grandma to be able to go to the mall again, I want to go to a nice restaurant, have some wine and eat. I want to not fear life. 

Stuck in the news is also stuck. Andrea (50) reads the news in times of pandemic. April 29, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

Room-stuck day 10. My mom, Andrea (50) had to bring me food so that I wouldn’t need to touch objects in common areas inside my house (or even breathe the same air). April 1, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

The new normal: masks hang to dry after walking the dog. Rio de Janeiro, 2020. April 23, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

Pedro (13) has also been quarantined for a long time. For a young soccer player, to stay stuck at home is big sacrifice. April 8, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

Stuck with the view of the other side of the building. April 29, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

From inside the building to the street in Rio de Janeiro. May 1, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

Since the start of the pandemic Thereza (78) hasn’t been out to the mall with her caregivers for being part of the higher risk group. May 1, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

Remote work is one of the biggest challenges during quarantine. It is too easy to just distract by all of the reasons you are stuck in the first place. April 8, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas separated by a few miles and a net. May 1, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

When stuck at home, Andrea (50) has to do something she hasn’t in a while: clean the house. April 8, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

Julio (64) admires the beautiful landscape of the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas through his bedroom window. April 1, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

Net blocks the view of Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas in Rio de Janeiro. May 1, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

The view from Christ the Redemeer from the Garage. Rio de Janeiro, 2020. May 1 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

This is a project of Lori Grinker’s NYU graduate photojournalism class.

The post Stuck: Life under quarantine in Rio de Janeiro appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

I have been quarantining in my tiny teeny West Village studio for almost two months now. The virus and news of anti-Asian attacks in New York and across the country have successfully scared me off the outside world. But there is one problem — my pocket apartment doesn’t come with a kitchen and I can’t really cook. So I have been ordering delivery for nearly every meal. 

While I am worried that I might catch the virus from receiving the food from the delivery people, contactless delivery, where the driver leaves the food in front of my door and I express my gratitude by tipping them on the app, has really helped. 

This is a look into my unhealthy quarantine diet.

Grubhub delivery order from Bus Stop Cafe in the West Village outside my door, April 11, 2020. Photo by Keighton Li.

Pasta Bolognese from Bus Stop Cafe in the West Village, April 11, 2020. Photo by Keighton Li

DoorDash delivery order from Boka St Marks Place outside my door, April 9, 2020. Photo by Keighton Li

Kimchi fried rice with spam from Boka St Marks Pl, April 9, 2020. Photo by Keighton Li

UberEATS delivery order from Blank Slate Coffee + Kitchen in Nomad outside my door, April 18, 2020. Photo by Keighton Li

Bacon scramble from Blank Slate Coffee + Kitchen in Nomad, April 18, 2020. Photo by Keighton Li

Grubhub delivery order from Shu Han Ju in the West Village outside my door, April 22, 2020. Photo by Keighton Li

Mapo Tofu from Shu Han Ju in the West Village, April 27, 2020. Photo by Keighton Li

Dig delivery order outside my door, April 28, 2020. Photo by Keighton Li

Charred chicken bowl from Dig, April 28, 2020. Photo by Keighton Li

UberEATS delivery order from Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen in Chelsea outside my door, April 30, 2020. Photo by Keighton Li

Fried chicken and a side of biscuit from Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen in Chelsea, April 30, 2020. Photo by Keighton Li

This is a project of  Lori Grinker’s  NYU graduate photojournalism class.

The post Contactless: Food Delivery amid COVID-19 appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

“I usually try to play as soft as possible,” said Borden, a second-year percussion major at The Juilliard School who now must perform at home in Cranbury, New Jersey due to the coronavirus outbreak. “I start on my practice pad when everyone’s asleep and as the day progresses I’ll typically try to start on timpani and snare.”

From finding out which computer angle picks up the best sounds of his drums to reworking an otherwise rigid practice schedule, Juilliard for Borden has never looked so different.

“It’s forcing us to work on our finer techniques,” he said. “Since we can’t go through the motions of in-person rehearsals and lessons, we finally have a chance to perfect our basic skills on the practice pad.”

Ever since music schools were shut down last month, music majors across the country must now come up with creative ways to sharpen their skills.

Noah Lilienthal, 19, is a student at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.

For 19-year-old Noah Lilienthal, a second-year music major at Wesleyan University, that means setting up a make-shift practice space in his crowded household. He places thick boards of cork in his room to buffer the rhythmic clapping that will happen during his Solkattu South Indian music class. The oil painting from his father that hangs on the wall is now turned towards his monitors, acting as a barrier between his wails on saxophone and the five people living in his home.

“I’m in a New Music Ensemble where my professor has us record some pretty out there and atonal stuff,” he said, laughing. I’m constantly squeaking and tapping on my saxophone and my family wouldn’t want to hear that shit.”

Although Borden and Lilienthal are able to send recordings to their professors, many of their performance classes have turned into lecture style courses.

But even those have been challenging over video.

“The connection just sucks sometimes,” Borden said. “The professor may say some great point during a lecture and then the bandwidth just goes out the window.”

“The delay is the worst in my South Indian music class,” Lilienthal also said. “Normally we’re all sitting in a circle clapping and relying on our professor’s visual cues, but I can’t line up with his beat when they’re delayed!”

While laggy connection has delayed their classes, the situation hasn’t dampened their musical hunger.

“My friend John and I have been trying to push each other to learn a new jazz standard each week,” Lilienthal said. “You’ve got to push yourself even when nobody’s telling you to do so.”

Borden has taken on the same mindset, using the time spent at home as an opportunity to come back to school stronger.

“You’ve got all the time in the world now to practice, so people are almost expecting you to come back better and ready to go,” he said.

“I’ve been working on producing and composing a lot,” he added. “I’ve been making a 2010’s style pop song just to see if I could do it. Now’s the time to show that you’re irreplaceable as a musician.”

Harrison Tsui is an NYU undergraduate journalism student.

The post Music majors make music during quarantine appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

José Oscar Rodríguez Ramos, presidential adviser of the United Front of Organized Police, said officers lack protective equipment like gloves and masks to protect them from  the coronavirus. 

“The cops are working without the necessary equipment,” said Rodríguez Ramos, who said the group represents approximately 9,000 officers. “They don’t have enough, they don’t have what they should have.”

Puerto Rico has confirmed 378 cases of Covid-19 and 15 deaths as of Friday. Earlier this week, seven officers in the town Aguas Buenas tested positive for the disease. Authorities shuttered a police station in Yauco on Thursday after a sergeant tested positive for Covid-19. Police stations in Moca and San Germán are also closed.  

Police Commissioner Henry Escalera assured yesterday that Puerto Rico’s Police Bureau has a security plan to continue patrolling as officers are quarantined and stations are shuttered. He said stations that were closed in Rincón, Aguas Buenas and Caimito were reopened. 

Escalera said on Wednesday that there is a shortage of protective equipment, but that stations have been provided hand sanitizer, gloves and masks. He said the department is awaiting more items to distribute at least 30 masks for each police officer and protective gowns, according to the Metro, a local newspaper. 

Rodríguez Ramos said the bureau sends cops out to patrol without proper protective gear, noting they could be exposed to the virus while intervening with a citizen. He said police cars could be a focus of infection because several agents use them.

“The bad thing about the patrol car is that it’s like a taxi, it’s not like one’s private vehicle,” said Rodríguez Ramos, who was in the police force for 30 years before retiring. “A minimum of six cops work in the same unit.”

To reduce the risk of contagion, he said, the union recommends only one officer patrol at a time or that officers always be partnered with the same person. He also said cops should follow social distancing norms in the workplace and suspend group meetings before shifts.

Rodríguez Ramos said the department has not issued a protocol on how police officers should intervene with a person that has symptoms associated with Covid-19, leaving agents further unprotected. 

“(Covid-19) is not what we are used to,” he said. “It’s something that you do not see or that you may take home with you.”

For José Marín, executive director of the Puerto Rican Police Union, if officers continue to be exposed to the virus and quarantined, Puerto Rico could be left without the protection it needs, especially during the coronavirus curfew. 

“We make an exhortation to the people to take precautionary measures and that they stay at home,” said Marín, who was a part of the force for 30 years. “We (police officers) cannot stay at home. It’s very important that people stay in their homes.”

By executive order, Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced imposed a lockdown on March 15 and extended it to April 12. Authorities have arrested 489 people as of Friday for violating the overnight curfew. 

Marín said officers are afraid of catching Covid-19 while out on the job and exposing their families to the disease. He said the group, which represents close to 4,000 thousand officers, receives calls everyday from agents expressing concern over their wellbeing.  

“Since we were sworn in on the first day as officers, we already knew that we had to face this type of situation,” said Marín. “Before there was a virus, we knew that we had to face the criminal’s firearm, we had to face the criminal’s machete. The virus is a different war, but one that we have to face in the same way.”

Pavement Pieces reached out to Puerto Rico’s Police Bureau for comment, but received no response.

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Three weeks ago, whether it was in preparation for a spring break trip, or planning months in advance for a summer getaway,  this was the attitude of many wanderlust filled millennials, as they booked flights for record low prices to enticing destinations like Las Vegas and Miami.   

Despite the World Health Organization declaring the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic in the U.S on March 11, and pleas from the CDC and White House directly aimed at them to quarantine, or to practice social distancing, many pressed toward their departure gate.  However, not every millennial ignored the coronavirus threat.

T’Klah Fields, 23, a Houston native now living in Brooklyn, admits she initially didn’t take the idea of quarantining seriously, but when she saw the numbers of cases rising, she quickly changed her mind.  

“Once the quarantine took full effect, I began to count my blessings and I continuously send prayers up for all affected and prayers to shield myself and my loved ones,” Fields said.

In New York, while young people account for a small number of deaths and hospitalizations, 40 percent of New York’s 44,915 confirmed cases are people aged 18-44. Governor Cuomo issued a stern warning to millennials about their reckless behavior reminding them of their vulnerability.

“You are wrong! You’re not superman and you’re not superwoman. You can get this virus and transfer the virus, and wind up hurting someone who you love or hurting someone wholly inadvertently,” Cuomo said. .

 For Fields, who works as a corporate fashion buyer, the first week of the quarantine was very hard as she dealt with drastic job changes, switching from  a hands-on and face-to-face client environment, to having days filled with conference calls, virtual training classes, and reviewing job materials online.

“I have created a new routine of 80% of my life being digital of some kind,” Fields said. “Initially, I found myself staring at screens all day – laptop screens, tv screens, phone screens, etc. To take myself [out from] the virtual haze, I take daily walks, as spring days are upon us.” 

With the second week of quarantining approaching, Fields is adjusting and is using the time she is spending indoors being productive, working on her personal brand and blog. Despite the occasional yearning to go to brunch with friends, Fields has found happiness in the increasingly popular trend of virtual happy hours with friends and family via apps like Skype and Zoom, trying out new recipes, and watching movies that remind her of her childhood.

“That has really lifted my spirits,” Fields said.

She also feels like her time spent indoors has made her grateful for her loved ones around her. Fields lives with an older relative who has not been able to step outside since the quarantine began. She helps get groceries, medicine, and other essentials as needed.

She believes that seeing the changing demographic of who is falling ill is what will get millennials to start taking matters more seriously.

“I think the more people of all ages get sick, the more people will realize that this virus is real,” Fields said.

Janay Tyson, 22, who also lives in New York, said millennials are lacking a sense of urgency in the pandemic. Tyson chose to leave the city to  be with family in North Carolina, and has been in quarantine for 10 days. She would advise that the sooner that people start social distancing, the sooner there will be a chance that things clear up. Until then, she will not be returning to New York.

“I will be enjoying my time getting better sleep, doing DIY crafts, and having game nights with family,” Tyson said. 

For others, volunteering their time to help others has been an effective way to get through their day-to-day lives during the  pandemic.

 Last week, Gabriele Kriaucionyte, 24, a Master’s of Psychology student at NYU, decided to get involved with NYC #StudentsAgainstCorona, after crossing paths with an elderly man who was having difficulties walking.

“It felt very wrong to be on the side that is perfectly capable of helping, but not doing so,” Kriaucionyte said.  “I saw my friend starting this community and I had to question, ‘why not me? I believe that kindness reciprocates, and I feel more sense of community today more than ever.”

The student-led volunteer group helps elderly and immunocompromised people with everyday tasks.  It was started at University of Oxford in England and spread to 24 cities throughout the world in 12 days. New York’s chapter has 220 volunteers so far.

“I feel like being a socially responsible millennial will shape our future and our children,” Kriaucionyte said. “A very easy way to become conscious about this issue is to ask questions to yourself such as: what if it were my family? What if I was older or had health conditions and it were me? By helping, we set standards for ourselves and for future generations, and we create a sense of welcoming and loving community. It is just ‘human’ to give a hand to those who need it.”

Although millennials have not been the only group called out for not following social distancing protocol, state officials and healthcare professionals across the country have found themselves the most frustrated with millennials. They attribute their nonchalance to early reports from China that suggested that a young person would have a high rate of recovery if they were to contract the virus. 

“I believe the media portrayed the true facts that older people with comorbidities (the  presence of two chronic diseases or conditions in a patient) are at much higher risk for more significant disease if affected by the novel coronavirus,” Dr. Vanessa Stoloff, Senior Medical Director at UPenn Student Health Center said.

 The media correctly said older people are at a higher risk of getting very sick and dying of the virus, but that does not mean millennials have zero risk.

  “Younger people may have thought this meant they have a lower chance of being infected, which absolutely may have contributed to the current attitude of young people acting ‘invincible’. However, working with students of these generations daily, they typically feel “invincible,” despite the overwhelming amounts of education one might give them. That I can’t explain, ” she said.

 Internationally, the need to self quarantine is strongly enforced, and disregard for government orders comes with consequences.

 “We have to text a government number stating the reason we’re leaving the house, and wait for approval. Alternatively, you can write out your own form and carry it with your ID,” says Georgia Bruno-Skipp, 25, who is originally from London, but now resides in Paphos, Cyprus with her husband.  

Cyprus, which has a population of 1.21 million, has reported 162 cases of infection and 5 deaths as of this week.

 “If it’s not a valid reason or necessity for leaving the house, they are fining people 150 euros (equivalent to $167.53),” Bruno-Skipp said. 

Bruno-Skipp said she and her husband are trying to make the best of the situation despite a two week quarantine turned complete country lockdown.  She also lost her job as a baker. Her father, who works as a cruise ship musician, is also spending time with the couple, as he is stuck in Cyprus after multiple cancelled gigs.  

 “The best part of the quarantine is getting time to spend with my dad and our  animals,” Bruno-Skipp said.

She said the government is doing a good job trying to curb the virus.

“There’s not much to say other than take it seriously or the long term will be a lot worse than what they’re asking us to do now,” Bruno Skipp said. “I think that until someone they know gets it, they will carry on the way that they are.”

The post Millenials (Not) Gone Wild: Despite reports, many millenials are being responsible appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

He’s considering an enforceable quarantine in New York and possibly other areas  to slow the coronavirus outbreak. 

“Some people would like to see New York quarantined because it’s a hot spot. New York, New Jersey, maybe one or two other places. Certain parts of Connecticut quarantined,” Trump told reporters outside the White House today.

He said he had spoken to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo  earlier today .

But Cuomo said the enforcable quarantine was not discussed. 

🚨🚨 WATCH: Gov. Cuomo DENIED speaking to TRUMP about a possible quarantine of New York. ‘I don’t even know…what that means,’ he said. ‘I don’t like the sound of it.’pic.twitter.com/Vn02KgSeF9

— Peter Morley (@morethanmySLE) March 28, 2020

“I don’t even know what that means,” Cuomo said. “I don’t know how that could be legally enforceable. And from a medical point of view, I don’t know what you’d be accomplishing.” 

 He said he did speak to the president about four potential hospital sites. 

“I spoke to the president about the ship coming up and the four sites. I didn’t speak to him about any quarantine,” Cuomo said.

Trump is also thinking of backing governors, like Desantis, who are calling on restricting travel. He said many infected New Yorkers are traveling to Florida causing more problems there. 

“We are very strong on people not leaving, especially certain states, and going to other states where they have less of a problem,” Trump said at his press conference yesterday. “You are hearing constantly about people leaving New York and going down to Florida, and New York is obviously a hotspot. We’re not playing games.”

The virus continues to spread rapidly through the state, Cuomo said. New York currently has 52,318 confirmed coronavirus cases and 728 deaths. New York City has the highest number of cases with 29,766 and over 500 deaths. New Jersey has 8,825 confirmed cases of coronavirus. According to Johns Hopkins report, there are 116,505 confirmed cases and 1,925 deaths in the United States. Globally, there are 652,079 confirmed cases and 30,313 deaths.  

Trump also told reporters that an additional four medical centers and tents will be provided beyond what has already been given to New York. 

The USNS Comfort, a naval hospital boat with over 1,000 beds and over 1,200 medical personnel, is expected to arrive in New York within two day. He said it’s four weeks ahead of schedule and will arrive on Monday.

The post Trump is looking at enforceable quarantine to slow coronavirus spread appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

On her way to stay with her family for spring break, and until in-person classes resumed, she packed the essentials, leaving the rest behind in her New York University dorm room. 

That Sunday, the government of Puerto Rico put in place a curfew. And on Monday, to her dismay, a memorandum from her university announced that all dorms would be shutting down, giving approximately 12,000 students living in housing less than a week’s notice to move out, and advising them to do so within 48 hours.

“It was contrary to everything they had told us up until that point,” she said. “They could have told us to move out before spring break. Everything I own is in that room.”

All over the US, universities have been closing down student housing in response to the new coronavirus outbreak, some of them turning the dorms into facilities for quarantine or temporary hospitals. The situation has been escalating day by day, and institutions have been struggling to quickly respond to an unprecedented crisis.

New York has been hit particularly hard, and is quickly becoming the epicenter of the outbreak in the US. 

The email sent out by NYU President Andrew Hamilton on March 16th offered to have student’s belongings packed and shipped for free and assured they would be reimbursed for the rest of the semester. It instructed those who were away for spring break and planned to return to “do so as soon as possible”.

It also gave students the possibility to petition for an exception, noting that “the bar will be high” and warning them that they might still be asked to move to another house. According to several students, the university only responded to their requests on Thursday, three days before the final deadline to move out.

“I decided to seek temporary housing, because of how long it took for them to respond to the housing requests,” 23-year old graduate student Pak Ho, said.

Like Ho, who is originally from Hong Kong, hundreds of international students, who are around 27% of residents, were put in a complicated situation, unable to go home, because of travel restrictions, health concerns and fear of not being able to return soon.

“I can’t go back because of the visa issues and travel bans that are already on Iran,” a graduate student who asked to not be identified because he is considering pursuing legal action against NYU, said. “[Getting a visa] was a really, really, really hard process. Now the University is asking me to go home. They didn’t think about it in terms of international students, who don’t have any place here and they can’t go anywhere.”

He found a temporary place to stay, through the help of a coalition of students and the GSOC student-worker union, which dubbed themselves the “NYU COVID Coalition”. In response to the initial memorandum, the group promptly took the role of advocating for students and forming a system to pair up people who could provide any type of housing and students in need. 

The Iranian student did get his petition for an exception approved, but still preferred to move out.

Students have noted the generosity they’ve felt from people offering up the homes, either for a place to crash or for storage, and also from the NYU COVID Coalition. Just not from NYU.

“Through my four years at NYU, I’ve gotten a sense that they don’t care about their students,” Nagovitch, who is a fourth-year housing resident, said. “And that was just completely validated.”

Iraj Eshghi, a student worker who is part of the NYU COVID Coalition, said the group is especially concerned about the way NYU handled the process of moving people out, more than the decision to close dorms.

“At least the way it was done for graduate students, was they out of the blue,” he said. “ I wouldn’t entirely blame NYU for that, because it seems like nobody was prepared for this.  But just the way NYU dealt with it was particularly harmful [to students].”

On March 17th, one day after the announcement that housing would be closing, Senior Vice President for Student Affairs Marc Wais sent out a more informal email as a response to the initial backlash. It highlighted how they would now be offering the possibility for students to have their possessions locked in their room, and how only “students who are in day-trip range” should return to campus to pack up their belongings.

It also offered some further explanation as to why students were being kicked out of housing: for their own safety and for the university to possibly be able to offer up its dorms as a state contingency plan in the event of hospitals being overwhelmed.

“I know that some of you may feel that the University should have anticipated this decision earlier,” Wais wrote. “Nonetheless, I can promise you that it is not the case that NYU knew all along that it was going to end up here.”

Pavement Pieces reached out to the Office of Student Affairs, for an interview with Marc Wais, but could not get one in time for this article. The questions sent via email also remain unanswered.

“I understand why they closed residence halls, I understand everything that they explained in the second email,” 22-year-old senior Jana Cholakovska, from North Macedonia, said. “I was mostly upset about the language and the fact that they made it seem like we had known rather than them convincing us that it was all going to be fine. In fact, you know, we were convinced for a very long time that we were not gonna be kicked out”?

Wais talked about the situation in an article published on Tuesday, March 17th, in the New York Times.

“Mr. Wais indicated that many students had not heeded earlier calls to leave their dormitories. ‘Altogether, this was the opposite of what we needed’,” the article said. 

But just a few days before, on the 12th, an email from NYU Residential Life & Housing Services stated, “the residence halls remain open at this time, supported by NYU staff members.”

In fact, most students, even resident advisers, said that they were completely blindsided on Monday by the announcement that the dorms would be closing. 

But in just several days the spread of the virus continued at an alarming rate. It became clear that dorms could only be used by students who had no other choice.

By the end of the week, some of the students who asked to have their possessions packed and shipped were still struggling to figure out just how that process was going to happen. 

“I have packed some of my stuff. But some of my stuff isn’t packed and there’s no way I can go back,” Lyvi Wren, a 23-year-old student from Canada, said. “I get that they’re going to pack things up and ship them. But when are they going to do that? What are they going to do about things in the common area?”

Others have raised questions about, for example, who exactly would be doing the move, the number of things that could be shipped and whether there would be an insurance policy. Overall, the lack of information has kept everyone in a state of unease.

“You’re at a point where you don’t know who to talk to,” Nagovitch said. “Instead of answering the phone, a little voice comes up and tells you to go check the coronavirus website for updates.”

A statement put out early in the week by the Inter-Residence Hall Council addressed some concerns regarding the way the housing situation was managed, including the lack of information regarding their decision.

“This was done without any notice to any of the groups that represent or work for NYU Residents,” it said. “We recognize that extreme measures and decisions are increasingly common across the nation, but it should be recognized that consulting students about decisions that impact student housing and well-being will logically create better decisions.”

They also addressed health concerns, regarding the way the university called on their students to go back to housing to get their belongings. Contrary to the recommendations that have been given out by authorities, they advised students to travel back to New York and to come together at the same time in the halls, “almost certainly” leading to gatherings of 10 or more people. 

“I completely understand why they did it,” Cholakovska said. “But I think that they put their students in danger when they told everyone to come back immediately and preferably move out within 48 hours. My first fear was, ‘oh my god, this is going to create a bottleneck effect where all of us are going to start moving out in the same at the same time’.”

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