Cases Spike at Universities Nationally – Inside Higher Ed
Some parts of the country appear particularly vulnerable.
Most colleges and universities have now begun classes and brought students to campus all over the country. Several of those institutions, especially large ones, are now seeing outbreaks of COVID-19 among students.
Many of the most visible and serious outbreaks are in the Southeast United States.
The University of Alabama has had over 500 cases at its Tuscaloosa campus, for example, and Auburn University has seen over 200 cases this week alone. The University of Miami reported 141 after the first week of class, and the University of Kentucky has seen 250 cases so far.
In some examples, the shock of those case counts is tempered by considering high enrollment numbers and a low positivity rate. The University of Kentucky, for example, enrolls over 30,000 students, and its positive results as a share of tests reach only 1.1 percent.
In other cases, what looks high is high. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for example, has reported 635 cumulative cases among students since the first week of August. For the most recent testing period, the positivity rate was over 30 percent. The university announced last week it would be sending students home, a step none of the others mentioned have taken.