Local 12 News: UC medical students running essential errands for those at high risk of COVID-19

Local medical schools are closed amid the coronavirus pandemic, but that’s not stopping dozens of future doctors from helping where needed. Instead of assisting on the operating room floor, they’re giving back by going to the grocery store.

Third-year UC medical students Tommy Daley and Cassandra Schoborg would typically be on medical rotations at Cincinnati-area hospitals right now, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, they’re using their time to give back in other ways.

The two students have launched the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky COVID-19 match. It is a free service aimed at connecting younger healthy volunteers who have a lower risk for illness with individuals at severe risk of developing coronavirus and in need of someone to pick up groceries, medications or deliver meals.

Individuals with asthma or with immunocompromised systems along with seniors 65 and older are considered in the high-risk category, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than three dozen additional medical students have joined Daley and Schoborg to assist the special service.

The idea came after Schoborg talked to her grandmother. “Just the fact that if she didn’t have our family nearby to get her groceries and everything during this time, it would definitely be a challenge for her to avoid getting sick,” Schoborg told a reporter for Local 12 News.

Watch the Local 12 News interview online.

Other media outlets have also covered this effort spearheaded by UC medical students.

Read the WLWT story online.

Listen to the Fox 19 interview.

Read the Cincinnati Enquirer online.

Watch Spectrum News tell the story.

Lead Photo of Tommy Daley taken by Colleen Kelley/UC Creative + Brand.