Covid-19 infections among students change the plans of some US universities

(CNN) - Universities across the country are quickly learning that creating a coronavirus-free environment on campus can be nearly impossible.

Young people helped drive a national surge in new coronavirus cases over the summer and are now returning to college campuses across the country, sowing new outbreaks.

Despite efforts to keep the virus at bay, the outbreaks have been linked to off-campus gatherings, sororities, fraternities and dormitories, leaving schools a reassessment on how to proceed with the fall semester.

• LOOK: Videos from social networks show a crowd mostly without masks at a party near the University of Georgia

At Appalachian State University in North Carolina, a group teamed up with the soccer team. Iowa State University reported that 175 students tested positive for the virus, about 2.2% of those tested, during their installation.

"It is extremely difficult to consider yourself in a bubble when there is a very high level of community around you or when people come from all over the country and congregate on college campuses," said Dr. Leana Wen, the former Commissioner of Education. Baltimore City Health. "You cannot avoid the coronavirus."

Across the United States, the spread of the virus remains out of control. The 7-day average daily cases of novel coronavirus in the United States fell to 49,000 on Monday, the first time it has been below 50,000 since July 6. Worldwide, that total daily average is second only to India, which has four times the number of people.

Adjusted for population, Georgia, Texas and Florida have seen the most cases per day on average. All three states are run by governors who pushed to reopen during the spring, saw large waves of cases in the summer, and are currently pushing to reopen schools. Texas has issued a mandate requiring face masks, but Georgia and Florida have not.

The 7-day average of new deaths in the US has been more than 1,000 per day for the past 23 days. In Florida, authorities reported the death of more than 200 people in one day on Tuesday, for at least the 10th time in the past month. More than 5.4 million Americans have been infected since the start of the pandemic and at least 171,821 have died.

While older Americans and people with underlying conditions are at higher risk for serious illness, health officials have emphasized that it's not just those populations that should be cautious.

Coronavirus cases in children rose steadily from March to July, experts said earlier this month, and 1 in 3 children who were hospitalized were admitted to intensive care, as were adults.

And younger people who can recover from the virus with minimal symptoms and in many cases do not require hospitalization, may still have "residual symptoms for weeks and sometimes months," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Allergy Institute. and Infectious diseases.

"We better be careful when we say 'Young people who don't end up in hospital are fine, let them get infected, it's fine.' No, it's not okay, ”Fauci said during a briefing by the American Society for Microbiology on Monday.

Universities rethink amid outbreaks

Roughly a dozen universities have already reported coronavirus cases on campus, with others taking a more careful approach to reopening.

All undergraduate classes at the University of Notre Dame will be remote for the next two weeks after 147 students tested positive for coronavirus, the president announced this week.

UNC-Chapel Hill reported that 130 students had tested positive for coronavirus in the first week since classes began. The university is moving toward remote learning for students beginning Wednesday, school officials said in a letter about a week after classes began. The school said it still plans to play sports this fall, even though it no longer offers in-person classes.

The University of Kentucky says 160 people have tested positive since classes began on August 3. A significant number of parties, which violated the school's student code, led to an increase in cases, according to the university's executive communication director, Sarah Geegan.

At Colorado College, the 155 one-bedroom students were forced to self-quarantine after the university learned of a student who tested positive and failed to practice proper social distancing guidelines.

At Drake University, 14 students were asked to leave campus for two weeks after violating an agreement signed by the students that outlined health and safety protocols for the year.

North Carolina State University, Iowa State University, Oklahoma State University, Northeast Mississippi Community College, Western Kentucky University, and East Carolina University also reported significant numbers of cases.

Other schools have seen the writing on the wall and adjusted their plans.

Ithaca College in New York, which previously delayed its fall face-to-face semester to October, announced this week that it would switch to remote instruction for the entire semester.

Michigan State University classes will begin remotely for all students, announced President Samuel L. Stanley.

Standby Blood Plasma FDA Emergency Clearance

An emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for blood plasma as a treatment for COVID-19 is pending, but could still be issued in the near future. Dr. H. Clifford Lane, deputy director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told The New York Times.

The suspension came after a group of federal health officials, including the director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Lane, they chimed in to argue that emerging data on the treatment was too weak, the Times reported Wednesday, citing two top administration sources.

"All three of us are quite aligned with the importance of robust data through randomized control trials, and that a pandemic does not change that," Lane told the Times.

Meanwhile, SalivaDirect, the test that received the green light from the FDA last week, could be used by approved labs in the coming weeks, says Anne Wyllie, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health who was part of the team responsible for the protocol.

"In fact, it has been very inspiring to see how many labs have already contacted us, how many are ready and willing to go SalivaDirect," Wyllie told CNN.

This is great news for many Americans who still have to wait several days for their results, a waiting period that some health officials have called counterproductive to the country's efforts to control the virus.

The test does not require specialized supplies and can deliver results in less than three hours. Officials have called the test a "game changer" and one expert also highlighted its expected low cost.

"We simplified the test to only cost a couple of dollars for the reagents, and we expect the labs to only charge about $ 10 per sample," said Nathan Grubaugh, assistant professor of epidemiology at Yale.

CNN's Amanda Watts, Naomi Thomas, Annie Grayer, Jamiel Lynch, Giovanna Van Leeuwen, and Jennifer Henderson contributed to this report.

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