(upbeat music) - Welcome to another edition of InFocus.

I'm Julie Staley as March of 2021 comes to a close, we're all pausing to remember what the last 12 months have been like.

Canceled events, closures, and loss have dominated our lives over the last year.

And while there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel, many are still being cautious and not getting their hopes too high.

In this edition of InFocus, we'll hear from those on the front line fighting the Corona virus as well as those who've adapted to a new way of doing things as so many of us have over the last year.

COVID-19 has changed the way everyone lives.

But the pandemic has especially impacted those in healthcare.

Two Southern Illinois doctors talk with Steph Whiteside about the ways the pandemic has affected them personally and professionally.

- [Gurpreet] This year has been very, very sobering to use the term.

We were flying high with like.

We as a medic medical doctors can do so much things.

And what I feel is that nature has shown us its power yet again.

That you know what?

There are challenges and as there are social challenges there are medical challenges.

- [Steph] When the pandemic began in March 2020, doctors, like everyone else were faced with new challenges.

Dr. Richard Rethorst at Franklin Hospital and Gurpreet Bambra with Southern Illinois Healthcare shared what it's been like to be on the pandemic front lines.

- I think it's been like for everybody else the world changed a year ago.

(chuckles) Suddenly we had to rethink how we could see patients, what we would be seeing, how we would treat them, (paper rattling) how we would try to decrease the risk of transmission.

I think the first week seven when we realized how far this was spreading, it was a lot of fear of the unknown.

We didn't have a chance to know how much the virus was out there already.

- We had to scramble, set up what we called COVID command to have new sets of rules, how to see the patient, how to quarantine, how to keep ourselves and patients safe, then came the emergence of telemedicine which both the patients and physicians had to learn.

And it changed over the time as we got more proficient in that.

- I don't think we reached what we now call surge capacity but we have plans in place on how to deal with that if it happened.

The biggest thing that I was surprised at was if we had a sick patient in the emergency room and not just somebody sick with COVID but people still had heart attacks and strokes.

Trying to find a hospital that could accept them and manage them was a challenge there for a few weeks.

We had literally day waits at some hospitals to get in.

- [Steph] Both doctors also recall the challenges of seeing patients who were alone and scared.

- Sometimes they would like to see the last call, the last FaceTime there with family.

It was heartbreaking.

It was heartbreaking.

And on the other hand, we have success stories also.

The families would talk to us every day because their loved ones was on the mechanical ventilator.

As they improved either they were extubated or they had a tracheostomy and they subsequently moved to the long-term care in some cases, still it was a success story to save anybody's life.

- Very quickly, we discovered that there's limits on this technology.

Not everybody has a smartphone.

People can't hear the smartphones or hear the computer.

And then you're limited to what that person is showing you on video too.

So just being able to see them and see their breathing and look healthy versus they look sick and probably need to be in the hospital was about all you could lean from that.

And then we're having to wear a mask and that down our barrier in the clinics and emergency room hospital.

No longer could patients understand what we were talking about as easy.

I think all of us have learned to read eyes much better.

- [Steph] And on top of the professional challenges there were personal worries.

- We were trying to save our patients and then we were going home and one of the biggest worry was that am I carrying the infection to home?

With small kids at home, yes, that fear was magnified a little bit more.

But again, we were taking all the precautions we could and continued to do our best to help our patients.

Many may not see in through my eyes but being away from your family and with the travel restrictions in place, it was even more stressful because it's a pandemic.

The people were getting sick everywhere.

So there was this worry of what if something goes wrong back home?

- We had that discussion several times throughout the last year of, am I at risk bringing the virus home to everybody at home?

And then for them when they're out and about shopping, are they at risk for bringing the virus into the home and then me bringing it into the clinic?

And we through stuff and stuff we've seen those kinds of things happen, not just locally but in other locations around the country too.

- My kid's a four year old.

So initially they were really confused.

Like why is this guy behaving so strange when he's coming home?

Initially he would come and straightforward jump into playing with us and now he's showing us a stop sign and he goes and changes clothes and shower and then a minute he comes and talks to us.

But overall they developed a narrative that there are still germs outside and that's why you're doing it.

- I'm wearing scrubs now at work.

And before I was wearing business casual attire, a tie and a shirt and slacks and those went away and I went into scrubs because I knew through previous research that scrubs had been shown to lower the risk of transmission.

- [Steph] And all of this was happening while the world grappled with a new virus and a flood of misinformation about COVID.

- The one thing which I will bring is that you know what?

We have to develop our skills to separate noise from data.

It's very easy to go on online these days and find any kind of information right or wrong you want to hear and want to see.

And idea is to develop that ability and it can take some time to do that.

The second thing is about resilience.

I won't say that it was not taxing at any time, but again you have to learn to hang in there and ask for help when you need it.

Instead of like that I'm the one who is gonna do everything.

No, there are teams and work with your team.

- [Steph] While both doctors are hopeful about seeing an end to the pandemic at the one year mark, there's still a ways to go.

- Don't assume it's gone.

(laughs) Over the weekend I heard stories from Europe where several places are worried they're getting another wave over there what they call them mutation viruses.

So this thing is not over yet even though the rates are dropping.

So don't let your guard down completely.

- [Steph] For InFocus, I'm Steph Whiteside.

- It's certainly been a difficult year for businesses, families, and friends all over the world.

The statistics are sobering.

According to the World Health Organization more than 119 million cases of COVID-19 were confirmed over the last 12 months.

2.7 million people have died across the globe.

In the United States, 29 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than a half million deaths attributed to the disease.

And here in Illinois, 1.2 million cases with more than 20,000 deaths.

But there are reasons for optimism.

Positivity rates are dropping across the country and vaccination rates are rising.

While experts continue to say we're not out of the woods, they're also quick to say that we're right on track.

Reopening plans are being modified as leaders at the federal, state and local levels adjust their timelines and their guidelines based on current vaccination and test positivity rates.

As more vaccine clinics open, health leaders are encouraging everyone who is eligible to sign up for a shot.

And to help with that, you can call the state's COVID-19 vaccine hotline.

The number is (833) 621-1284.

Or you can go to their website at covidvaccination.dph.illinois.gov.

You can also contact your local health department for more information.

As things stand this spring, still about 40% of schools in the country are closed to in-person learning.

Many parents are concerned their children may lose a year of progress.

But in the Catholic Diocese of Springfield, schools opened on schedule in August and with a few exceptions, remained opened for in-person learning the entire year.

Mark McDonald visited Christ the King School in Springfield to learn about the planning that went into this accomplishment.

- We're at Christ the King Catholic School in Springfield with principal Pam Fahey.

Pam, it's been about a year since you heard the news that your school was shutting down.

Do you remember where you were and how you heard?

- I do, I remember the day very well in my memory.

It was March 13th of last year and I was in a meeting over at the parish center, a finance council meeting.

It was late in the afternoon and I was reading all the news reports during the day.

I was looking at other reports that were coming through emails and so I had a feeling that something might be happening.

And sure enough when I was at the meeting over at the parish, I did get news that we were closing.

That the governor was going to sign an executive order closing all the Illinois schools.

So it was right before dismissal time.

I was a little prepared.

I had already written a statement letter to our parents.

And so I was able to send that out right before dismissal time and then meet with my teachers right after school so that we could put plans into motion on what to do the next week because we still had to continue learning and we just had to do it in a different way which was virtually.

So luckily we were off on the Monday, the next Monday, and we had that day off so we could do a lot of planning for this virtual instruction that we were going to begin.

- You had one day to plan (laughs) what you were gonna do on Tuesday.

How you were gonna get all those kids learning from home?

- That's correct.

We had one day.

Luckily we had a Chromebooks that all of our students had already, second grade through eighth grade.

And then over the summer we acquired more Chromebooks and tablets.

So every one of our students in the school building this year, we have 435, they all have one-to-one devices.

- So for the rest of that semester everybody was home.

- Yes, that is correct.

- Nobody came back to school.

This room we're standing in is a really good example of flexibility.

This was the cafeteria.

- Exactly, this is a-- - But you can't use it at a cafeteria because you can't all those kids together.

- That's correct.

So what we had to do this summer, we had to look at our space throughout the whole building and try to figure out where we could make alternative workspaces.

This is a nice big area that we could use partitions if we needed.

And we could put other classrooms in here or groups of students that needed to separate from their classrooms so that they could make more space to have that distance that we need between each student that we call social distancing.

- So as much as possible, each class of say 10 or 20 students, they stay together because you don't want them all intermingling and possibly spreading something.

- Right, we call that a cohort.

- Okay.

And so they even eat in the classroom.

Instead of coming to the cafeteria they eat in the classroom and they stay with the same cohort.

- Yes.

- So there's still the possibility of spreading.

Did you ever have an outbreak?

- Well, I wouldn't say our school had an outbreak but back in November our community transmission levels were very high.

For example, today I did receive a report that I believe there was about 1100 positive cases in Illinois.

In November the positivity rate was up to 15,000 in Illinois.

In our community alone in Sangamon County here, our community levels were extremely high.

You might remember knowing somebody who actually contracted COVID was positive.

And so we had to look at those numbers and they were just really on the rise in November.

So much so that there were parents in each of our grade levels.

Somebody in the grade levels parent was positive with COVID.

We had about six or eight teachers at the same time who were positive with the COVID virus.

And so we had to do something.

So we ended up pivoting and going to remote instruction just for two weeks.

- Other than that period, though, this whole school year from August until here we are in the end of March you've been in class.

- We've been in class.

- And there's only maybe a handful of kids that are learning from home at a given time.

- Correct.

- This is what I find interesting.

When you found out you were gonna have to close the school in March, I thought, well, they have all summer to plan the next semester.

It didn't work out that way.

You had to get something done really fast because parents wanted to know if they were gonna be able to have their kids in school next year.

- Correct.

So back in May even before we left school on May 22nd, I had a plan in place that I sent out to all of my parents during the last week of school that outlined what the CDC had recommended and how we could return to learning in the building safely because safety is our main concern.

We wanted to make sure everybody was safe here.

So we went through five mitigations.

Wearing masks all day, every day and washing our hands and watching our distance so that we are six feet apart so we wouldn't be exposed if someone was carrying the virus.

We also had to add lots of layers of cleaning where we had to disinfect every single evening using a fogger and disinfectant wipes and washing things down every day.

And then the last mitigation strategy that we used was just making sure that our exclusion guidance from the Illinois Department of Public Health, Sangamon County Department of Public Health, the CDC, was followed very, very closely.

- How were the teachers?

Were they helpful?

Were they reluctant?

Were they resistant?

How were they?

- Well, they were part of the reopening plan.

And so in the summer as we discussed this plan that I started in May with that vision, we really kept changing it over the summer.

We met with 13 teachers and with parishioners and with the parish staff and with my administrative staff and we really tweaked it so that it would work.

So those teachers had input on the plan.

They really wanted to be in person more than anything because they wanted to address the academic needs of the students, the social and emotional learning of the students.

Everything needed to really be addressed and we could only do that if we were in-person.

So they weren't totally on board with coming back.

- And of course there's more to a parish than the school.

The school is a huge operation but you also have this church building and the parish offices and all the programs that go on there as well.

- Correct.

- So the next stop we're gonna take is over at the church because the pastor that came in was a new pastor.

- Yes.

- So we wanna hear his experience as well.

(laughs) - Yes - Father Chris House, we just learned how the school shut down and then reopened.

The church was in the same boat.

- Right.

- And in fact you came to be pastor in a very unusual time.

How many people could take over a parish?

It was July 1st, I guess.

- Yes.

- How many people come to a parish during a pandemic?

- It was a new experience for all those who'd moved at that time.

And we had a lot of moves this year in the diocese.

It was awkward because the goodbye wasn't the normal either.

So we were basically leaving through emails, through recorded messages and then coming in and I still say that as we progress through all this, I'm looking forward to still getting to meet half of my parish.

- Well, that's true because they haven't come back yet.

- Right.

- You're only allowed to have 25% of your people in attendance, right?

- Right.

- So and a lot of people have been terrified of this and have not gone out at all.

So they'll be glad to go to church one day.

- We hope so.

And we're finding already though, they're coming back in.

So especially it seems a few weeks ago with the weather getting better, with the beginning of the season of lent, we've seen about a 20% uptick in attendance and it's great.

So some people we had in the fall and then as we know when it kind of spiked they kind of ebbed back out.

And then once again they're coming back.

And now I'm meeting some folks that I haven't.

It's for the first time.

And it's wonderful.

- Of course, What keeps the church going in many cases is the collections.

And if people aren't in the pews the collections aren't happening or am I wrong?

Maybe they are.

- Well, we would think that but one of the wonderful things that we have found is that people have really risen to the occasion throughout this through EFT, electronic funds transfers, through people sending in contributions through the mail or people dropping stuff off.

While they may not be in the pews on Sunday, they've been watching online, they've been watching through live stream and they're very much still supporting their parish.

So our finances, thanks be to God and the generosity of his people are doing fairly well all things considered.

We had our school bonus raffle before Christmas.

It's the best one we've ever had.

So people in spite of all things, in spite of their own difficulties and challenges, have really risen to the occasion I know for their parishes, for other charities as well.

And so it's been tremendous.

- Well, that's really good news.

Good news on the school front and also on the church front as well that people can work their way through this thing for a whole year and see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks Father.

- You're welcome.

- And that light's coming.

We know it's coming because the vaccines are being given and people are getting out more.

And with the warm weather we really think that we've got this thing under control.

InFocus, in Springfield, I'm Mark MacDonald.

- Many other schools adapted to the changing conditions by switching to remote learning.

And that meant providing the necessary technology to students and their families to use at home.

You can see more about that at our website wsiunews.org to learn how some school districts worked to keep their kids engaged and learning even as their world turned upside down.

Well, there are few programs like it in the area.

The Hoogland Center for the Arts Education Program gives kids and teens first hand experience performing and producing shows of a lifetime.

And as theaters around the world have been silent during the pandemic, the Hoogland Education Program just keeps on going.

- [Narrator] Exactly one year ago this month, the Hoogland Education Department was celebrating the opening of a production by some of its youngest performers when their world and the rest of the world suddenly changed.

(upbeat music) - We went into this week a year ago just about to open up Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

We had done a school performance that Thursday morning and as the day went along we kept watching the news and seeing how restrictions on individuals in community spaces were going from 150 down to 100 down to a 50 in such a rapid change of time.

And it became a reality for me that this production that we put so much heart and so much effort in was not going to be seen by the public.

- [Narrator] Kids and teens from grades one to 12 usually put on three productions a year.

As students of the Hoogland Education Program, they learn everything about performing from being center stage to being backstage.

- We learn dancing, singing, acting.

- Costume design, props and set design, lights.

- [Narrator] But the start of the pandemic meant the end of these opportunities.

It meant to continue and help Hoogland through the hard times, the program had to be reinvented.

- It took a lot of thinking for me that when you strip away the idea of a performance, when you strip away audiences coming to see you and receiving that kind of recognition, what does education leave you with?

And for me it has been able to find times with these students in class that is more individualized and really looking at their craft as being the core of why we do this.

Finding community among students is essential.

♪ To the sky ♪ my students and I always say we're looking for our most authentic selves.

And so this year being virtual, that has been our guiding light through all of our classes.

- So basically the way that Matthew teaches it's very connective.

Everybody's connected.

Everybody enjoys being around each other and in this learning environment.

- [Narrator] This year, there is just one performance.

Hoogland students will work on their talent at home and come together virtually and socially distance on stage to perform for families.

- I think we don't need so much of me teaching singing, acting, and dancing as much as we need each other to share our confidence together, to share our artistic spirit and to keep moving forward.

♪ Careful what path they take ♪ ♪ Wishes come true ♪ - Not every town or community has something like this.

But for us it is a blessing that we do have it because again, it does provide a community and a safe place for people to just enjoy theater and enjoy being on stage and being proud of the work we put into our productions.

- [Matthew] It's really hard walking into the classroom right now and seeing all the costumes still hung up in the corner, seeing the set pieces stacked up against the wall.

It's very hard to walk into the space and see that.

A moment I remember from last year was having the cast on the stage.

- [Narrator] The best thing these students have been taught is simply what they will use to make their own music in the world.

- I want to go and also continue educating in my future and I've even started teaching small courses myself through other programs and educating other people and wanting to get them involved into theater as well.

- I just think this program is really great because when I first came here I wasn't as confident and comfortable as I am today.

Not only in just theater but just in myself as a whole.

But I feel like everyone here, especially Matthew and Mr.Vala has brought me out of my shell.

And I feel like I've just blossomed and I couldn't be more thankful.

- What is your name?

- Matilda, Matilda Wormwood.

- Huh.

- I would definitely say the connection that everyone has and it's not only the students it's also the staff or the teachers, it's a very positive environment and it makes you want to be a part of this.

It makes you want to be here and really take that drive into what it takes of performing.

♪ Peace be on earth ♪ - Hoogland kids and teens don't just perform on stage in Springfield.

They've traveled as far as Walt Disney World to perform onstage there.

Time of their life.

Well, thank you for joining us for another edition of InFocus.

You can find us online and on demand at wsiunews.org.

We'll see you next time on your PBS station.

(upbeat music)