Outbreaks at colleges across the United States are beginning to spill off campus and infect surrounding communities — a worrisome trend that does not bode well for other school reopenings this fall. |
Among the top 20 metropolitan areas where new cases per capita rose the most over the past two weeks, nearly half were college towns where large public universities recently reopened their campuses. |
At the University of Alabama, more than 1,300 students and staff members have tested positive, prompting the mayor of Tuscaloosa, Ala., to close all bars in the city for two weeks in the hope of slowing the explosive outbreak. |
In the first week of classes, Iowa State University in Ames found 104 cases and the University of Iowa in Iowa City had 607 students test positive. The outbreaks prompted Gov. Kim Reynolds to close bars in six counties through most of September. Other college towns with the greatest rise in cases relative to population include Oxford, Miss. (University of Mississippi); Lawrence, Kan. (University of Kansas); Auburn, Ala. (Auburn University); Pullman, Wash. (Washington State University); Statesboro, Ga. (Georgia Southern University); and Grand Forks, N.D. (University of North Dakota) |
Meanwhile, colleges have become America’s laboratories for testing and tracking experimentation. They are trying out dozens of health-check apps, homegrown contact tracing technologies that record student movement and exposure risk, and even wastewater tests that look for the virus in sewage in dormitories and student apartment buildings. The motivation to get reopening right is profound: Colleges’ economic survival depends on people coming to campus safely. |
But it’s becoming clear that the real danger may be less to the students themselves and more to vulnerable people in their families and surrounding communities. |
“I think the colleges are the canary in the coal mine,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said recently. “I think what we’re seeing at colleges, we’re going to see at the K-12 setting when those schools start to reopen.” |
Disturbing data. Cases, hospitalizations and deaths from the coronavirus have increased at a faster rate in children and teenagers than among the general public, according to data from the summer compiled by the American Academy of Pediatrics. |
