With the holiday season just around the corner, the number of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in the state of Indiana have started to skyrocket.

In the month of November, Indiana has averaged around 4,800 new coronavirus cases each day. This average is up by almost 3,000 from October. In fact, Indiana set a new record-high number of cases reported in a single day of more than 8,000.

While cases and hospitalizations in Indiana rise, college students will also return back home for what is likely the first time for many this semester.

IU decided to remove fall break from the fall 2020 semester schedule to minimize the travel that is often associated with the break. This means that Thanksgiving break is the first schedule time off IU students have had all semester.

To help mitigate the risk of students traveling back home to their families for Thanksgiving break and possibly bringing the coronavirus home with them, IU setup optional on-departure testing for students. 

“It’s such a big campus and there are so many people that go here and if you have loved ones, especially with Thanksgiving coming up, that are older and you don’t want them at risk, so I think it’s a good idea to get tested before for their safety and for yours,” IU freshman Lucy Annee said. 

Although Annee is required to get on-departure testing because she is a freshman, she said she would have done it anyway to make sure it was safe for her to go home. She said she is not very worried about celebrating Thanksgiving with her family because they have all already had the coronavirus.

But not everyone is comfortable going through with their Thanksgiving plans due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One student that changed their plans because of the increase of cases in Indiana is IU student Noah Ehrman. 

“Recently this weekend, I saw it jump up to like 6,000 cases a day, so I decided then to cancel my Thanksgiving plans at home,” Ehrman said.

Though on-departure testing gives students a better sense of safety when returning home to their families for Thanksgiving break, some students said they’re not sure there was enough testing.

The voluntary on-departure testing slots did not accommodate for every single student to get tested, but IU spokesperson Chuck Carney said they would expand available times to meet student demand. 

“I thought it was really odd that I saw like four people in there, and the last time I got randomly selected there was at least 20 or 25 people taking the test,” IU student Jerome Bingham said after taking his on departure test Sunday. “Which I don’t know which one I prefer better, you know you want less people in spaces, but at the same time, are not as many people getting tested? I don’t know.”

Annee said she thinks IU should have started doing on-departure testing sooner to accommodate more students and make sure that everyone who wanted to get tested could before returning home without rushing to get a test.