Amid Clusters of COVID Cases, UNC-Chapel Hill Goes Remote

All classes will be online starting Wednesday at UNC-Chapel Hill as a COVID-19 outbreak at the North Carolina university grows, the News & Observer reports. The AP notes the campus was just one week into the fall semester when the announcement was made Monday. Students started moving back on campus in early August, and on Aug. 12, nine days after that process started, the county's daily case count started rising. It had previously been falling steadily for more than a month.

Four coronavirus clusters, located in dorms, apartments, and a fraternity house, had been reported since Friday, and university officials made the remote learning announcement after 130 more cases were identified. The university has had 324 confirmed cases since February, but there may be more, since some students list their home address rather than a campus address and others may not self-report the results of tests taken off campus. Before the university made its announcement, the student newspaper published an editorial referencing weekend parties and noting, "We all saw this coming." (More coronavirus stories.)