A year and two weeks into the coronavirus pandemic and there are clear signs of hope on the Indiana horizon – along with new viral variant threats from Brazil, South Africa, the UK, and California identified in the state.  Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb is reducing or dropping most state-mandated pandemic measures, next week, while the state’s health commissioner says it is not time to behave as if the pandemic is over.  Ball State President Geoff Mearns says he is focusing on the Ball State campus and what is best for its students, faculty, and staff, based upon the advice from the school’s medical advisors, the Delaware County Health Department, and the Indiana Department of Health.

Mearns also said Ball State will expand its COVID-19 inoculation clinic on Riverside Ave., in the new Health Professions Building, to increase vaccinations for all eligible Hoosiers – now 16 years of age and older. Mearns explains Ball State’s plans to offer, not require, students, faculty, and staff to get vaccinated.

And the Ball State president tells about the university’s Ginn Woods, north of campus in Delaware County and the move by Ball State to get a special status for that track of land.

All of this is on our latest Ball State pandemic update.  You can hear the entire segment, aired on Friday, April 2 on Morning Edition, via the audio app, below: