reposted from The Scientist
COVID-19 Outbreaks Occur as Students Return to Campus
Following a string of outbreaks, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will move to an online-only semester.
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As college campuses across the US welcome students back for the start of the semester, numerous universities are faced with isolating individuals who are testing positive for COVID-19, Inside Higher Ed reports. For the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), the spread of multiple clusters of COVID-19 cases has caused the school to transition to online-only classes for the duration of the semester, effective Wednesday, August 19.
After the first week of in-person classes, UNC announced four COVID-19 outbreaks, resulting in the quarantine of three residence halls and one off-campus fraternity house, totaling 130 students and five staff members since August 10. The Daily Tar Heel, UNC’s student newspaper, tweeted Monday afternoon that in the wake of these cases, the university is suspending in-person instruction.
Some of the earliest COVID-19 outbreaks on college campuses involved football players who returned to school up to two months before their peers for summer workouts, The New York Times reported earlier this summer.
In the wake of so many schools experiencing outbreaks, many sports that are high- or moderate-risk for COVID-19 transmission, such as football and soccer, have been postponed until the spring. Additionally, some schools, including the University of Maryland, have announced limitations on the number of students who can live in their residence halls. Other universities had anticipated such problems and scrapped in-person instruction from the get-go.
Here are some of the outbreaks that have occurred at college campuses both over the summer and as students have returned for the fall semester:
Note: This is a working list and will be updated. If you have an update to this list, please email Lisa Winter at lwinter@the-scientist.com.
State | School | Cases |
|---|---|---|
| Arizona | University of Arizona | Three football players tested positive in July after returning to campus. |
| California | University of California, Los Angeles | Eight football players tested positive in August after returning to campus. |
| Colorado | Colorado College | One student tested positive after moving into a residence hall, putting 155 people into quarantine, the school announced on August 16. |
| Connecticut | University of Connecticut | The school announced on August 16 that two students tested positive after moving in on campus. |
| Georgia | Georgia College | 27 students tested positive after the first week of in-person classes, which started August 12. |
| Illinois | Northwestern University | 29 students, faculty, and staff have tested positive since mid-June. |
| Illinois | University of Illinois | 23 football players have tested positive after returning to campus in June. |
| Indiana | Notre Dame University | The school announced on August 12 that a total of four football players have tested positive since returning to campus. An off-campus party was also linked to 58 student cases since dorm move-in. |
| Iowa | Iowa State University | 66 students tested positive while moving in on campus in the first week of August. |
| Kansas | Kansas State University | 29 student-athletes tested positive in June after returning to campus for football workouts. |
| Kentucky | University of Louisville | 29 student-athletes tested positive following an off-campus party, the school announced on August 5. |
| Michigan | Michigan State University | At least 23 football players and staff members tested positive since late July. |
| Mississippi | Northeast Mississippi Community College | Nine students tested positive for COVID-19 after returning to campus for the start of classes on August 3. |
| Missouri | Missouri State University | In-person orientation has been canceled after 42 tour guides tested positive, following an off-campus party in late July. |
| New Jersey | Rutgers University | 10 football players have tested positive after returning to campus for summer workouts in mid-June. |
| North Carolina | East Carolina University | On August 17, the university announced a cluster of positive cases in a residence hall. |
| North Carolina | University of North Carolina | Four clusters of virus cases were identified in three residence halls and one off-campus fraternity since August 14. The school has responded by making the semester online-only, effective August 19. |
| Oklahoma | Oklahoma State University | 23 residents of an off-campus sorority house tested positive, the school announced on August 15. |
| Oklahoma | University of Oklahoma | Nine football players tested positive after being sent home for a break on August 8, then returning to campus. |
| Tennessee | University of Tennessee, Knoxville | Nearly 30 people on campus have tested positive, even before students moved back to residence halls, the school said on August 13. |
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