Chapel Hill police cite UNC students for violations as campus COVID-19 cases rise
The Chapel Hill Police Department is cracking down on students who are having parties and violating state orders as coronavirus cases continue to rise at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Chapel Hill police issued citations to four UNC students for violating Gov. Roy Cooper’s executive orders about COVID-19 safety regulations late last week.
In the announcement of the citations, the town said UNC is notified of every warning and citation issued to a student. The university has committed to “taking action with any student, including disciplinary actions where appropriate,” the town said in a news release.
The university also reported 72 new coronavirus cases among students and an employee on its COVID-19 dashboard Wednesday, bringing the total to 766 COVID-19 cases since school began in early August.
Off-campus citations
Police cited two students in connection with a party that was held Aug. 20 at the Phi Delta Theta fraternity house on South Columbia Street. The citation reports do not indicate whether the two men, ages 19 and 20, are members of the fraternity.
Police also cited two UNC students, ages 19 and 20, with violating a state order. The reports in that incident did not clarify the nature of the violation, which occurred at a house on Church Street near downtown Chapel Hill.
Chapel Hill police reports show COVID-19 violations were also investigated over the weekend at a house on McMasters Street near downtown and at a Rosemary Village condo on West Rosemary Street.
“I hope all community members will see that we are taking this very seriously,” Chapel Hill Police Chief and Executive Director for Community Safety Chris Blue said in a statement. “We do not want to issue any citations and will continue to use education first when responding. However, we will charge when we encounter deliberate and egregious violations that jeopardize our community’s overall health. Our goal is and will continue to be community health and safety.”
New COVID-19 cases among students
The university reported 41 new positive cases among students Wednesday and added 30 new student cases to Monday’s case count.
About a dozen of those new cases were identified in residence halls, including Granville Towers, Ehringhaus, Hinton James, Carmichael and Craige dorms. UNC’s dashboard also showed a cluster of 5 cases in Koury dorm, which was announced Tuesday.
The number of new daily cases had been steadily declining since Aug. 19, when UNC switched to remote learning and students started moving out of dorms, with the exception of Monday’s increase.
The university moved classes online for the fall just one week after beginning the semester after a spike in coronavirus cases at UNC. There also been multiple COVID-19 clusters in campus dorms and UNC fraternity and sorority houses.
According to UNC’s dashboard, occupancy in housing on main campus has reduced to 15%, compared to 60% on the first day of classes, as students have canceled their housing contracts. Occupancy also went down from 76% to about 22% in Granville Towers.
The number of students in quarantine and isolation on campus also declined by about 40 since Tuesday. Currently, 76 students are in isolation with COVID-19, and 70 who may have been exposed are in quarantine, the dashboard says.
As of Wednesday, the state Health and Human Services Department reports 15% of the state’s total coronavirus caseload among people ages 18 to 24. In Orange County, its 43% of reported cases are among college-aged individuals.
The school reports 4,741 students have been tested with 903 positive results since February, plus 52 employees. Last week, there was a 32.2% positivity rate among students who were tested.
Staff writer Tammy Grubb contributed to this report.
