UNC abruptly stops in-person classes after coronavirus outbreak on campus

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced Monday it was canceling undergraduate in-person classes and switching them entirely to distance learning after a coronavirus outbreak quickly spread across campus two weeks only after the return of the students for the fall semester.

University administrators made the announcement just a week after classes began on the campus, which has about 30,000 students. The entire UNC system has more than 200,000 students, but university officials said the decision applied only to its Chapel Hill campus, which was one of the largest universities in the country to decide to organize in-person classes for the fall semester in the midst of the pandemic. .

The school said in a statement on Monday that the rate of “positivity” for Covid-19 had jumped to 13.6% on Sunday from 2.8% a week earlier. Some 135 students and staff have tested positive over the past week, according to the university’s online coronavirus dashboard.

“This morning we tested 954 students and have 177 in isolation and 349 in quarantine, both on and off campus.” The university has only four remaining quarantine rooms, according to its online coronavirus dashboard, updated earlier on Monday.

Due to the increase in the number of cases, the university will transfer all in-person undergraduate courses at its Chapel Hill campus to distance learning by Wednesday, the university said. Courses in colleges, vocational schools and schools of health affairs “will continue to be taught as is or as directed by the schools.”

The university did not say if distance learning would be in place the entire semester, but offered to cancel residence reservations without penalty.

“We understand the concern and frustrations these changes will cause many students and parents,” UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz and Marshal Robert Blouin said in a statement. “While we believe we have worked diligently to help create a healthy and safe living and learning environment on campus, we believe the current data presents an untenable situation.

University and school administrators are monitoring the situation at UNC and other universities that have already brought students back to campus to find out how and if schools can safely resume in-person learning.

Since last week, the university has revealed at least four clusters of infections that traced back to dorms and fraternities, according to student newspaper The Daily Tar Heel.

Earlier Monday, Barbara Rimer, dean of public health at UNC-Chapel Hill, wrote in a statement that “it is time to get off the ramp.”

“After just a week of campus operations, with an increasing number of clusters and insufficient control over the off-campus behavior of students (and others), it’s time to step out of the ramp,” she said. . “We’ve tried to make it work, but it just doesn’t work.”

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