College towns growing alarmed over outbreaks among students

As waves of schools and businesses around the country are cleared to reopen, college towns are moving toward renewed shutdowns because of too many parties and too many COVID-19 infections among students.

With more than 300 students at the University of Missouri testing positive for the coronavirus and an alarming 44 percent positivity rate for the surrounding county, the local health director Friday ordered bars to stop serving alcohol at 9 p.m. and close by 10 p.m.

Iowa’s governor has ordered all bars shut down around The University of Iowa and Iowa State, while the mayor of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, did the same in the hometown of the state’s flagship university.

“What we’re seeing in our violations is they’re coming late at night,” said Stephanie Browning, head of the health department for Columbia, Missouri. “Big groups gathering. They’re not wearing their masks, they’re not social distancing.”

The U.S. has recorded more than 180,000 deaths from the coronavirus and 5.9 million confirmed infections. Worldwide, the death toll is put at more than 830,000, with at least 24.5 million cases.

The University of Alabama has recorded over 1,000 cases on campus since the fall semester began last week. In closing the town’s bars Monday for the next two weeks, Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox said that an unchecked spread of the virus threatens both the health care system and the local economy if students have to be sent home for the semester for remote learning.

Three of North Carolina’s largest public universities have abruptly halted in-person undergraduate instruction and directed students to move out of the dorms after hundreds tested positive following their return to campus. More than 800 have been infected at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and over 670 at North Carolina State.

The problems did not change the thinking of other schools around the country.

The University of Virginia announced Friday that it is moving ahead with plans to offer in-person instruction for the fall semester, after delaying the start of classes for two weeks to assess the spread of COVID-19.

“We know some will be delighted to hear this news and others will be disappointed,” a university statement said. “To be frank, it was a very difficult decision, made in the face of much uncertainty, and with full awareness that future events may force us to change course.”