Eastern had an outdoor clinic administering flu shots and COVID-19 tests Wednesday morning and afternoon.

The clinic ran from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and administered free tests and flu vaccines to Eastern students and staff at both walk up and drive up areas.

Students who went to the clinic said that the motivation for getting tested and immunized was to keep campus safe for everyone who lives and works there.

Katie Crane, a senior majoring in two-dimensional studio art and philosophy, said she was getting tested and vaccinated to protect the community.

“Just for the safety of myself and others, I just wanted to make sure that I don’t have COVID-19 so that I don’t spread it to others and I want to get my flu shot so that I am less likely to get the flu,” Crane said.

Erin Zurek, a senior majoring in communication disorder sciences and Spanish said that she gets her vaccine every year “because my mom’s a pharmacist and usually I’m home at some point to get it from my mom but because of everything this year I haven’t been able to go home safely for a weekend yet so I wanted to take advantage of the free opportunity to get a flu shot.”

Zurek said that she was getting the COVID-19 test for fear of being asymptomatic and passing the virus.

“I’m doing it because we don’t know very much about the disease and you might not know when you have it,” Zurek said.

Jenna Little, a freshman biology major said that for her getting a test was required.

“I have to get tested anyway because I’m an athlete so that’s an every two weeks mandatory thing for us.”

Zurek also said she felt the organizers of the event were taking the proper precautions to avoid spreading the virus they were testing for.

“I think that doing it outside, while the weather permits, is a good precaution and also having the open space,” Zurek said, “I know they were originally going to have it in the ballroom but because of the size of the event I think it’s a really good idea that they had it outside instead.”

Crane said that the social distancing measures in place made the event feel safer than the last one she attended. “Yeah, I really like these lines that they’ve added because last time I attended the clinic people were really close together, they weren’t six feet apart so this kind of helps divide people up.”

Little said that the set up was the best that could be done in the situation, “I don’t really know how else they would do it other than maybe sectioning it off in times but it’s really hard to do that with everybody’s different schedules, so I think this is the best set up,” Little said.

Zurek the walk-up method of getting tested was convenient for students.

“The idea of just being able to walk up at your own convenience, you don’t have to schedule a time or anything like that, I thought was good,” Zurek said.

Zurek also said that she was glad to see the number of people getting tested and receiving the flu vaccine because it meant helping to ensure the safety of campus as the semester continues.

“With flu season and just winter in general being a time where people often get sick I think it’s good that Eastern students take every precaution they can in order to protect themselves and their classmates so that we can continue to learn in person,” Zurek said.

Allison Little can be reached at 581-2812 or aclittle2@eiu.edu.