Covid-19 Outbreak at UNC-Chapel Hill Causes University to Abandon In-Person Classes

The university is the first to fall to the novel coronavirus

Safety ambassadors checked for masks prior to students entering buildings at UNC-Chapel Hill. Photo: Ted Richardson/The Washington Post/Getty Images

For the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), allowing students back on campus did not go well. As The Daily Tar Heel, the university’s esteemed student newspaper, put it this morning, the school “has a clusterfuck on its hands.” By this afternoon, the university of more than 30,000 students had abandoned ship, officially canceling in-person classes.

Classes started just one week ago, and during that time four outbreaks — defined as five cases or more in a single setting — emerged at three dormitories and one fraternity house. The university’s Covid-19 dashboard reported 135 new cases and a 13.6% positive test rate for the week of August 10 to August 16, up from only 10 cases and a 2.6% positive rate the week before. UNC says it has initiated contact tracing for the clusters, and infected students have been moved into a dedicated dorm to isolate. According to one student’s account, however, sick students are not being monitored either for health or adherence to the safety guidelines.

Before the semester started, UNC was criticized for announcing that they wouldn’t be testing students when they returned to campus, opening up the dorms, and…