For the first time since July 21 the state of Illinois reported under 1,000 new cases of COVID-19.

The report was of 782 new cases and 12 deaths.

In past year we have all experienced the fear and panic the COVID-19 pandemic has caused. In the beginning there were so many questions, so much confusion about the virus and no clear answers of where we were or where we were going.

Now, after 2.66 million people around the world have died from the virus, we have begun to see the results of our society’s work to slow the spread of COVID-19.

However, this does not mean that it is time to slow down or reverse all of the work that has gone into lowering our positivity rates and destroy the progress we have made.

It is time to buckle down. That means wear your mask (all the way up over your nose), do not attend large gatherings or put yourself in the place to be at a super spreader event and definitely continue to follow university, local and state guidelines regarding the pandemic.

These guidelines have been created to keep us safe and health amidst the global pandemic we have been experiencing for over a year now and they only work if a majority of the population is following them.

And we get it, it’s not fun to wear a mask and miss out on another one of college’s unforgettable weekends.

However, after a year of this I think we can all agree we’re ready to move on and go back to living the lives we were living before the pandemic but for now we have to be responsible and continue the fight against COVID-19.