Corona-News

Those who live abroad but have German health insurance and meet the current requirements can make use of the municipal smear centres in Aachen and Eschweiler. Please contact +49241 5198 7500.

Based on the current developments concerning the spread of coronavirus and the recommendations of the respective authorities, further measures are being implemented to contain the spread and to ease the burden on the health care system. All sports operations, including subscription operations, sports facility rental and leasing must be discontinued until May 10, 2020. All offers of the University Sports Center (HSZ) are affected without exception, regardless whether they take place in university, municipal or external partner facilities, including the closure of all sports halls, tennis courts, the beach sports and cage football facilities, the all-weather pitch, the natural grass pitch, the outdoor fitness facilities, the Wildenhof water sports facility, the RWTH gym, the sauna, regardless of the sports use, including changing rooms and sanitary facilities. The date for resuming operations and the start of registration for SoSe 2020 will depend on future developments and will be communicated on the HSZ website at short notice. During this time, the service point can only be reached by telephone, e-mail or by arrangement. The service point is not available from 6 to 17 April.

For the approximately 770,000 students at North Rhine-Westphalia’s universities, the 2020 summer semester should not be a lost semester. This was emphasized by the chairpersons of the state rectors’ conferences of the universities and the universities of applied sciences, Lambert T. Koch and Marcus Baumann, in a press release. A large majority of the students are extremely motivated to take innovative paths together with their lecturers, they say, and an extensive switch to online formats for teaching and examinations will require numerous legal adjustments in the near future. In order to get these changes underway, a paragraph is to be added to the current Higher Education Act to enable measures to deal with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This paragraph is planned to empower the Ministry of Science to issue a legal ordinance that will facilitate the use of digital formats in teaching and for examinations and provide the universities with the necessary legal security. It is also intended to make regulations on the standard period of study, the enrolment process and other important aspects of the work of the universities more flexible: “The sole aim is to act quickly in the interests of our students so that we can make as much out of the semester as possible. We therefore ask the Parliament for cross-party solidarity so that the amendment of the law including the ordinance can be initiated as quickly as possible. Every day counts. After all, we expect no more and no less from the teachers than to change their teaching formats within a few days, sometimes completely,” explains Koch.

In order to be able to deal with the current crisis situation, emotional balance is very important. This is especially true when the usual professional and private daily routine changes and social contacts are severed. Being able to share your worries, feelings and practical ways of dealing with the crisis can relieve and reduce stress. In order to help employees, the RWTH’s psychological and social counselling service has established support mechanisms in the following areas:

• psychological stabilization and the search for constructive coping strategies,
• referral to adequate help,
• avoidance of the consequences of psychosocial stress, etc.

RWTH’s Psychological and Social Counselling Center for Employees and the Occupational Integration Management (BEM) offer telephone counselling, e-mail counselling and, in exceptional cases, face-to-face counselling (COVID-19-compliant behaviour). You can reach the staff by telephone from Monday to Friday from 8:30 to 9 a.m. for initial contact and to make an appointment by calling +49 241 80 24186 or by e-mail at sozialberatung@rwth-aachen.de. This is an initiative of the Occupational Health Management (BGM), the Advisory Office for Social Affairs, Supervision and Organizational Development (SozialBeratung) and the Occupational Integration Management (BEM) of RWTH Aachen University.

In the wake of the corona epidemic, the European Commission has postponed the registration deadlines for EU projects. A list of the new deadlines and important contact details are available on the website of the Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA).

According to information from the crisis management team of the city and city region of Aachen (as of March 31, 10:30 a.m.), there are 920 positive cases of corona infection, 463 of which are in the city of Aachen. Doctors of the public health department have determined that 322 persons who had previously tested positive for the virus are now healthy again. According to the guidelines of the Robert Koch Institute, a further smear test is only to be carried out exceptional cases, such as serious illness in hospital.

AStA has announced that the registration form for the make-up exams is open until 23:59 on April 13. The exams will be credited to the winter semester 2019/2020. Students should contact the student councils or exam planners in case of overlapping exams. Priority Master’s subjects will be easier to take in the summer semester. Registration for the summer semester is mandatory in order to take catch-up exams.

Experts assume that the next few weeks will determine what effects the corona virus will have in Germany and what restrictions in public life will still be necessary. RWTH sees the Easter holidays in particular as an opportunity to reduce its activities even more than before and has called on all employees to take a two-week Easter holiday if possible. This would further reduce the number of possible contacts among each other, which is seen as a further contribution to the containment of the virus.

During this time, RWTH will maintain operations in all relevant areas of the administration and ensure that all essential or urgent work in research and teaching can be carried out.

It is the express goal of the university to offer more digital services in the area of teaching and examinations in the coming weeks. Despite the existing restrictions on normal operation, this should enable courses to be offered by the beginning of the summer semester on 20 April 2020 at the latest and in some areas as early as 6 April 2020. The state of NRW grants this possibility to the universities: face-to-face lectures may only start on April 20, but online offers may already start on April 6. As a pioneer in the digitalization of teaching, RWTH also wants to use this opportunity for the benefit of its students.

RWTH therefore asks employees who are directly or indirectly involved in ensuring the operation as well as the creation of digital courses to understand that they cannot take any or only limited leave.

For all employees who do not take Easter vacation, it is of course still permitted to work at home as far as possible.

The Institute of Textile Technology at RWTH Aachen University has reacted to the lack of protective masks and created the “NeedMask” platform. A non-profit project for the procurement of protective masks in Europe aims to connect those manufacturers of masks with people who need masks. The goal is to establish a link between the demand and the supply of protective clothing, especially face masks.

The children’s university will also not be able to take place for the time being. The four dates of the first half of the year will initially be affected. Further information will follow as soon as more definite plans can be made.