The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced Monday that it has converted to all virtual classes after reporting 135 new COVID-19 cases and four clusters within a week of starting the first grade semester classes – an outcome that many critics were scared when the university decided to reopen.
“After consulting with state and local health officials, #UNCs disease infection experts and the UNC system, Karolina is making two changes to defend the campus,” the school announced Monday afternoon on Twitter. “On Wednesday, August 19, all undergraduate instruction will move to distance learning.”
The shift was announced within an hour after the updated case counts were added to the school’s CV-19 dashboard, which tracks metrics such as tests performed, positive cases, and isolation and quarantine capacity.
The dashboard shows 135 new positive COVID-19 cases – 130 students and five employees – for the week of August 10 to August 16.
According to the dashboard, the cumulative rate of positive COVID-19 test results at UNC-Chapel Hill is 10.6 percent – higher than the statewide rate of 7.5 percent. Among the 954 tests conducted in the week of August 10, 135 positive, or 13.6 percent, were reported. About 10 new cases were reported in previous weeks.
“As of this morning, we have tested 954 students and have 177 in isolation and 349 in quarantine, both on and off campus,” university officials wrote in a statement. “So far, we are happy that most students who tested positive showed mild symptoms.”
The most recent ‘cluster’ – defined as five or more cases in one dwelling or dwelling – was found in Hinton James Residence Hall, UNC said on Sunday. Individuals in the cluster are isolated and monitored, and bedroom residents are given additional information for next steps, the university said.
The university on Friday identified two clusters of coronavirus at student housing, the Ehringhaus Community and the Granville Towers. And on Saturday, UNC announced another cluster at a fraternal house off campus, Sigma Nu.
Prior to Monday’s announcement, many students criticized the university’s preventive measures, saying they did not protect students, staff and the surrounding community.
“Many students, graduates, staff, some faculty members and even the county’s local health department warned that this would happen,” said Lamar Richards, a student chair of the Campus Equality and Student Equity Commission at UNC.
On Sunday, in an open letter to the Carolina community, Richards wrote that the administration’s’ carelessness and dismissal has led to these outbreaks.
James Handler, a doctoral student at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Education, reiterated those sentiments.
“The dashboard and the university plan were designed in a way that they knew people would get sick,” Handler said. “Maybe not as fast as so much in volume, but it’s worth asking: What parts of higher education are worth saving over people’s lives?”
An emergency meeting between administrators and faculty members was scheduled for later Monday to discuss the situation.
More than a week before classes began, a group of more than 30 established faculty members wrote in an open letter to students expressing their fears about the university’s decision to open “too quickly and completely” this fall.
“Under current circumstances, it is not safe for you to come to campus,” the faculty members wrote in the letter published in The Charlotte Observer. “Stay home this fall.”
Just before lessons began, Handler told NBC News that the school’s early cases were a presidential warning of an outbreak.
“Today we say, ‘We told you that,'” he said.
The student newspaper The Daily Tarheel also called out the university leadership, writing an editorial with the headline, “UNC has a cluster —- on its hands.”
