More than 100 students have COVID-19 at UNC dorm as testing begins at 3 residence halls
UNC-Chapel Hill reported Friday the number of cases at three residence halls that have been sites of coronavirus clusters and have been targeted for mass testing of students and employees.
In an email to students, the university reported 135 positive cases across the three clusters. There are 16 positive cases at Ehringhaus, 17 at Hinton James and 102 at Granville Towers. The students are in isolation with “many close contacts in quarantine,” according to the email provided to The News & Observer Friday.
The state defines a cluster as five or more cases in close proximity.
The residence halls are some of the largest on and off campus, housing 2,009 current and former residents, the university said. Granville Towers is an off-campus, privately managed residence hall. Of those, 1,454 students still live in there, the university told The N&O in an email.
The state Health and Human Services Department and the Orange County Health Department are recommending for all current and former residents to get tested for COVID-19.
In the email, the university specifically instructed all Granville Towers residents to get tested for COVID-19 out of caution, due to the large outbreak, and to do so before departing campus to prevent further virus spread.
The school’s COVID-19 data dashboard said there were 88 new cases on Thursday.
Friday, the university reported a new cluster at Carmichael residence hall but did not say how many cases.
Students returned for mostly online learning in early August. But after clusters started emerging, the university announced Monday that it would move to remote-only classes on Wednesday. Students in residence halls have been asked to return to their permanent addresses to reduce the number of students in residence halls to 2,000, The N&O reported.
UNC announced that undergraduate classes would not be held Monday and Tuesday to give students time to move, make the transition to remote-only classes and to “ catch their breath.” Classes will resume Wednesday.
N.C. State University made a similar decision Thursday, shifting undergraduate classes to remote learning, but allowing students to remain in campus housing.
The school reports 3,583 students have been tested with 15.8% positive results, according to UNC’s COVID-19 dashboard, last updated Aug. 21 at 2:30 p.m. The highest positive test rate was reported last week at 13.6% out of 954 tests conducted.
The school previously reported four virus clusters and 177 students in isolation earlier this week.
Friday, UNC started reporting data on its dashboard on a daily basis. The university also started reporting the number of cases connected to a cluster.
In addition to the three residence halls, UNC said there are five cases in a cluster at Morrison Residence Hall that was reported Aug. 19.
Friday morning, the UNC Healthy Heels account tweeted that Campus Health would be “shifting operations” on Friday through the weekend to focus on mass testing for students in residence halls.
Previously scheduled appointments will be rescheduled and “only urgent needs” can be seen at Campus Health for now, the tweet said.
“As universities are getting ready to open or are in the process of opening, they need to look and see what has happened to UNC-Chapel Hill and make decisions accordingly,” Gov. Roy Cooper told reporters at a Wednesday press conference. “They need to enforce strong honor codes with students about not doing things that would violate the rules and would spread the virus.”
Cooper added that schools should work with local law enforcement and municipal health departments to prevent hazardous off-campus activities that would cause viral spread in campus towns.
As of Aug. 21, the state Health and Human Services Department reports 14% of the state’s total coronavirus caseload among people aged 18 to 24.
Students still living on campus can be tested at Campus Health and the UNC Health Respiratory Diagnostic Center from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday. It will be available from 9 a.m. until noon on Sunday, according to the email.
Those test results will be available within two to four days, the university said.
This story was originally published August 21, 2020 at 1:43 PM.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story included an incorrect total of cases across residence halls. The total is 135 cases.
