More than 200 new COVID-19 cases among students reported at UNC Chapel Hill
UNC Chapel Hill reported 218 new COVID-19 cases among students Monday and updated its dashboard with more clusters identified in campus housing.
The new cases were reported between Friday and Sunday, bringing the total number of cases among students and employees to nearly 650 since classes started on Aug. 10.
UNC-Chapel Hill announced it was moving classes online for the fall just one week after beginning the semester. The university has reported that hundreds of students tested positive for coronavirus since the first day of classes and identified multiple COVID-19 clusters in UNC dorms, apartments and Greek Life housing.
UNC-CH previously reported a total of 10 clusters, which the state defines as five or more cases in close proximity, on campus in dorms. Seven clusters were identified in on-campus housing, including Craige, Carmichael, Ehringhaus, Hinton James, Morrison and Avery dorms, as well as Granville Towers.
Three clusters have been identified in the Alpha Delta Pi, Sigma Nu and Zeta Psi fraternity and sorority houses.
The update shows a 31.3% positivity rate last week for students who were tested, which more is more than double the previous week’s positivity rate.
On its COVID-19 dashboard, UNC-CH reports that 4,188 students have been tested with 784 positive results since February. There also have been 51 cases among employees in that time frame.
Currently, 73 students are in isolation with COVID-19, and 122 who may have been exposed are in quarantine, the dashboard says.
N.C. State University and East Carolina University also announced they were moving all classes online after seeing spikes in cases on campus, including outbreaks in dorms and Greek Life housing.
As of Monday, UNC System universities have reported more than 1,500 students tested positive for COVID-19 since last spring, according to The News & Observer. The state Health and Human Services Department reports 15% of the state’s total coronavirus caseload among people ages 18 to 24.
This story was originally published August 24, 2020 at 5:44 PM.
