Contributed photo
Contributed photo
Issued the following announcement on Sept. 9
A new report finds that the pandemic is having an enormous impact on Illinois’ rural children as COVID-19 continues to complicate the systems that support rural children’s development.
Children in rural communities often have limited access to healthcare, sub-par early childhood opportunities and internet connectivity issues that create challenges for virtual learning. The pandemic has magnified those issues and the rise of the Delta variant makes children more susceptible to COVID-19 infection.
The Illinois Rural Health Summit organizing group, consisting of Southern Illinois University School of Medicine Department of Population Science and Policy, SIU Carbondale Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, The University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health and the SIU Medicine Center for Rural Health and Social Service Development, have developed a set of recommendations to make immediate and long-term improvements in children’s development in rural Illinois.
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