UNC Chapel Hill moves to remote learning just 1 week into in-person classes

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Monday announced that it will move all of its undergraduate coursework online starting Wednesday, Aug. 19, after the COVID-19 positivity rate at the school’s health center rose to 13.6%, from 2.8%.

In-person classes at the university had begun just one week earlier, on Monday, Aug. 10.

The cases seen on campus so far have been mild, according to a letter to the UNC Chapel Hill community from the university’s chancellor and executive vice chancellor. As of Monday morning, 177 of its students were in isolation and 349 in quarantine.

“Due to this announcement as well as the reduction of campus activities, we expect the majority of our current undergraduate residential students to change their residential plans for the fall,” the letter said. “We are working to identify additional effective ways to further achieve de-densification of our residential halls and our campus facilities.”

In addition to other precautions put in place for the fall semester, residence hall capacity at UNC Chapel Hill had been capped at below 60%.