Currents News Staff
Many students will be back online for at least part of the fall semester. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is forcing some schools to shut their doors, sometimes just days after opening.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is hitting the brakes on in-person classes for undergraduates, moving online starting Aug. 19
“I only moved in last Friday,” said UNC freshman Chloe Horton.
This decision comes after a rash of COVID-19 cases are confirmed on campus.
“I think the right move from the University initially was to not open at all because back in July, the chancellor sent out an email saying the numbers weren’t where they wanted them to be,” Chloe said.
More than 1,600 miles away, over 150 students at Colorado College are in quarantine due to possible exposure.
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta says there is still a risk.
“The only thing that I think we don’t know is at what point do these schools start to shut down again. The virus is still spreading, I mean this is not the time to open up and I don’t know if I sound like a crazy person saying that or not, but that is the truth,” Sanjay said.
The number of known COVID-19 cases in the U.S. doubles roughly every two months, according to Johns Hopkins University. Health experts say the country needs to be pro-active.
“Clearly we need new testing, we need to be able to scale up testing so that everyone who needs testing, who wants testing can get it,” said Richard Besser, CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, “schools and colleges can use testing as part of their strategy.”
Sanjay has one suggestion.
“If 95 percent of the country just simply wore masks at this point, it would start to bend this curve downward and save tens of thousands of lives,” he said.