The Midway is providing periodic updates regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on U-High students, faculty and others in the community. 

What’s open in the Hyde Park neighborhood

All parks, grocery stores, pharmacies, post offices and most restaurants are open for take out or carry out in Hyde Park, while most other services including gyms, salons and shops are closed.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot urged Chicagoans to exercise social distancing rules outside like avoiding large crowds and staying more than six feet away from others. She also threatened on March 25 to shut down city parks and the lakefront if people do not obey.

  “I personally have been concerned with what I’ve seen in our park. People playing basketball,” Mayor Lightfoot said in a news conference. “And what I’ve seen on the lakefront, way too many people gathering like it’s just another day. This is not another day.”

The Hyde Park Herald published a full list of closures in Hyde Park.

AP subject tests shift online while March, May SAT testing dates canceled

Traditional face-to-face Advanced Placement exams will be replaced by a 45-minute online exam meant to be taken at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The College Board canceled March and May Scholastic Aptitude Tests entirely.

While according to the College Board, the content of the exam will be altered to only include content that most AP teachers will have covered by early March, students registered for Advanced Placement exams can cancel at no cost.

Students registered for March or May SAT dates also qualify for a full refund, but the June testing date has yet to be canceled. The College Board also plans to provide additional future testing dates.

The College board published more information on AP exam changes for each subject as well as updates for taking the SAT.

Census Bureau urges Americans to respond online

The United States Census urged Americans to complete the mandatory online or physical forms sent to households for the decennial count on time, so it does not have to send someone in person to do the count. Sending enumerators, people employed to take the census, would risk infection with COVID-19. The forms were sent to Illinoisians March 12-20 and are meant to be completed by April 1.

As of March 24, the response rate in Chicago is only 21.5% and the Census Bureau will send enumerators between May and July to those who do not respond.

Updates on the Bureau’s census response can be found here.