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.

Lisa Winter

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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 ...

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Meet the Author

Lisa Winter
Lisa Winter became social media editor for The Scientist in 2017. In addition to her duties on social media platforms, she also pens obituaries for the website. She graduated from Arizona State University, where she studied genetics, cell, and developmental biology.
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